ORANGE CRUSH
This four-pot RA23 Celica is overflowing with old-school cool
ALL THE KIDS AT SCHOOL HAD GEMINIS AND COMMODORES, THAT SORT OF THING. THE CELICA WAS DEFINITELY SOMETHING DIFFERENT
MAIN: Like many of the mighty Fords that grace these pages, Troy’s Celica sports several GT badges – and like those same Fords, it’s a replica! The GT version was never sold in Australia, but Troy has fitted a GT grille and badges to match the GT engine, while the stripe package is actually a custom-made version based on the earlier TA22. “The TA22 scheme is just so Japanese,” Troy explained fondly. “But they’re actually shorter than the RA23, so I got these made”
The front and rear spoilers were made by a guy in Melbourne who builds repro Toyota items; originals are unobtanium. As for the double-chin action up front, Troy laughed: “Yeah, that’s my own Frankenstein creation – the Toyota repro item with a second one I built from a MKI Golf spoiler!” Hippari stretch tyres, deep chin spoiler, fender mirrors and extreme lowness all point to Troy’s Celica being in the JDM Shakotan style, which literally means ‘low car’, but he is at pains to point out this wasn’t intentional. “I did this sort of thing to Corollas and the like back in the early 2000s; now classic Japanese stuff is getting more popular here. It’s just what I like!”
ENGINE: Troy dumped the Aussie-spec 18R-C SOHC for the revvy 18R-G twin-cam from a Celica GT. It’s grunty and throaty, with a head designed by Yamaha, and the twin 40mm Solex carbs make a sweet induction noise when Troy blips the throttle. Despite the lack of hidden anything, it’s a pretty clean bay
WHAT if I told you not all street machines were V8s? “Sure,” you’d say, “there are plenty of mean six-packs out there!” Yeah, but nah; I’m thinking even less cylinders.
When you’ve slammed your classic four-banger to the weeds and ditched the stock engine for a grunty little JDM twin-cam, the flatcap-and-elbow-patch brigade don’t want you, and the import boys lament the lack of plastic and ‘pssshew’ noises. Troy Barker’s RA23 Celica sits right in that no man’s land, so can we give it a home in the pages of Street Machine? If you’ve thought: “Ken Oath!”, read on. If you’re about to fire up Facey and give us a spray, read on anyway.
We caught up with Troy at Adelaide’s recent All Japan Day, where his Toyota stood out like big orange balls against the retro-original tin and plastic-fantastic imports. “I had one as my first car,” he said. “All the kids at school had Geminis and Commodores, that sort of thing. The Celica was definitely something different.”
Troy hooned around in that RA28 liftback for three or four years but wrote it off when he pulled an all-nighter before an exam, fell asleep at the wheel and rear-ended a ute. While doctors stitched his nose back onto his face, Troy made the decision to one day find another Celica. “I can’t explain it; they’re just fun to drive!”
A decade on, Troy found this peach, a nannaspec 2.0-litre auto in sporty Toyota Orange 352. With a minty-fresh interior and very little rust, it was the perfect base for Troy’s vision of Celica perfection.
“I didn’t go full rotisserie or anything like that; the car was clean enough,” he said. “Honestly, I just gave it a closed-door respray.” Not that it was just a case of spray-and-pray: “My dad and I fixed up some small rust spots and made sure the swage line down the side was crisp.”
Despite the extreme stance, deep chin spoiler and ‘hippari stretch’ tyres, Troy had a stipulation – to run original metal wheelarches. “The guards are heavily rolled and pulled; a lot of people run flares, but I wanted to keep it clean. It was a bit more of a challenge!”
Those JDM alloys – Ssr-brand Mk IIS – measure 14x8in on the front and a whopping (for a little four-cylinder) 14x9 on the back, yet the Kumho tyres are comparatively narrow 185s. “Getting the Japanese-style stretch was the only way I could run silly-wide Japanese wheels,” Troy said. But getting a tyre joint to fit them was another thing. “They’ve got to use a bead-blaster or an old technique where they use lighter fluid and blow the tyre onto the bead!” he laughed. “These actually went on pretty easy; they’re so much crazier in Japan!”
Troy assured us the tyres are safe once the rubber is on there, although keeping the pressure correct is important, as it is on any ride.
Although Troy isn’t chasing quarter-miles, more power is a prerequisite if you enjoy driving, so the Aussie-spec 18R-C SOHC engine was dumped for a rev-happy 18R-G twin-cam, as fitted to the Celica GT in Japan.
“I sourced the motor from ebay years ago; in fact I’ve got two of them now, which is great as they’ve become really hard to find and really expensive!” said Troy as he tilted the bonnet forward in typical 70s Japanese car fashion. “They’re not a high-powered motor, but they’ve got a bit of a cult following in Japan.”