Celica

The sore thumb, a 1999 Toyota Celica. This served as my daily driver for about 8 months until the wife commandeered it from me because she got tired of our Lincoln LS. We initially planned to sell the Celica and buy a new Passatt, but then we got the bug and decided to call up Dr. Tweak formerly of Phoenix Tuning, and had a Gen II 3S-GTE swapped into the car! Probably my favorite car to drive out of the bunch, what a blast. Light, relatively fast, and when that turbo spools it hits you like a ton of bricks. Nuff said'.

July 18 2008 -- Wow, haven't updated here either. Earlier this spring, the Celica was returned to her former glory. Some custom SSIII designed front and rear splitters and a Ducktail spoiler now adorn her, and she's wearing new shoes in the form of 18x8 Tenzo R DC5 wheels in flat black with red lips. I miss the deep dish of the HP Design HPR5's, but these wheels completely change the character of the car, for the better. And there's a BIG little customization surprise we've got in store, just waiting on license plates to come in because they go hand in hand with the new mod. Hoping to get an AEM standalone next year to do some real tuning in preps for a bigger turbo and some REAL numbers.

August 14, 2006 -- And that winning combination was short lived. Katie called me at work rather upset. Seems someone accosted the car with a shopping cart at her work. Caved in a 9" x 11" section of the passenger side quarter panel, right behind the door on one of the best curves of the car. I have no doubts that it was an intentional act because of the ferocity at which the car would have to impacted to cave the panel in like it did. Just proves that you can't have anything nice when in New Jersey. Subsequent estimates from reputable shops prove to be approximately $1500 in damage to the quarter panel and door skin. Fortunately Katie's boss said that the company will take care of it, but the insurance estimators from the company are dragging their heels of course once learning of the actual cost to repair.

August 5, 2006 -- Today was a good day. Had a small Toyota meet in Philly, so I decided to press my luck and got up early to swap in a set of Tein S-Tech springs into the Celi. Only took 2 1/2 hours and the car has a completely new attitude. Meet was good, this was the "debut" of our car per se' and I feel that the overall reception was awesome. I think I finally put together a winning combination.

July 26, 2006 -- New wheels and tires went on the car today. Hp Design Wheels HPR5's in a 18x8 and General Exclaim UHP tires. Perfect look to the car. Just needs to be lowered.

July 17, 2006 -- We headed down to Savannah GA this week to meet up with Dr. Tweak and pick up our long awaited swap. This was the swap that should not be. We hadn't even planned on keeping the car until a whim decision by the wife led us to turn the docile yet fun driver into a little red devil.