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New era of Celicas. Some people told me tags as "ST165", "ST185",... refers to turbo size. This is wrong! This is indeed the model ident code. From RA + 2-digit numbers the Celica range now moved to ST160, with the 4x4 turbo version being ST165. Similar applies to later ST180 & ST200 generations. (And indeed ST230, which however was never rallied. ST230 was the last Celica, production stopped in 2005, but maybe not forever.)
Toyota, as many Japanese manufacturers, has a history of creating road cars that are not expected to have a long life span. While cars as i.e. Peugeot 205, Renault R5 and Lancia Delta stayed unchanged and attractive for well over a decade, you could bet your money that when you purchased a new Japanese car, you were owning an obsolete model 4 years later. This means, while Lancia had one model Delta in group A, Toyota competed them with 3 different models Celica, that had bar the name not a single panel in common with each other.
The ST165 version was the first of the group A Celicas. It could be identified by a relatively big front grill and huge glass all round. Untypical for the Celica series, the ST165 model was indeed trimmed for good alround visibility. The rear C-pillars seemed to be only alibi ones covered in glass.
Technically the Celica could be regarded as the first group A car to take a serious challenge to the dominating Lancia Delta. The reality however was not quite as straight forward. The engine lacked clearly behind the Delta unit and often had cooling problems. As soon as TTE found new ways to improve under bonnet air flow, the Japanese engineers worked hard to close the holes again, as Japan did not see the significance beyond the cosmetics. The transmission in turn was hugely sophisticated with first attempts to electronically control the differentials. However this technology was far from reliable and made the car unpredictable to drive.
Indeed, this was the car that brought Carlos Sainz to stardom. But in line with the story above, Toyota had drivers as Björn Waldegaard, Juha Kankkunen, Kenneth Eriksson and Mikael Ericsson on bord and none of them could manage a significant brake through. Juha Kankkunen even left the team after only two years, stating that he didn't see any chance to win a World title with that car. Only in the hands of newcomer Carlos Sainz the car seemed to be somewhat reliable with a chance on winning events and it even gave Carlos the World drivers title in 1990.
|
Model & Evo. (Activity) |
BHP@ RPM |
Torque (Nm)@ RPM |
Length Width Height |
Weight (Kg/BPM Ratio) |
Trans. (W'base) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Celica (ST165) GT4 (88-92) |
299/6800 | 380/4800 | 4365.1710.1300 | 1100 (3.7) | 4x4 (2525) |
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