Jason's ongoing ST165 project

I bought this 88 ST165 last fall. I had been wanting another AWD Turbo car since I sold my falling-apart 323GTX years ago. This car was a stalled project of two previous owners before I got my hands on it. I believe it sat for somewhere around 5 years before I (a few weeks ago) got it back on the road. The engine and trans were taken out to replace the clutch, so I had to figure out how everything went together without the benefit of having taken it apart. Fortunately the previous owner did a good job labeling most of the hoses and electrical connections. It also came with more 165 spare parts than I know what to do with (almost an entire car).

How it looked when I picked it up:








Probably the best part; a whopping 95K on the ticker:


Unfortunately my camera was broken during the entire re-assembly process. I only ran into a few snags, and replaced many parts. I have not had a good track record using SPEC clutches in other vehicles, so the SPEC stage 1 clutch that came with it was sold and I purchased a DXD stage 2 kevlar clutch (modified exedy unit) from South Bend Clutch. I am still tracking down little issues here and there to get this car back into perfect running condition before I really modify it at all. I plan to use it mostly for rallycross and winter driving. This Celica marks my 3rd Toyota vehicle (86MR2, 88SupraTurbo) and despite all it has wrong with it so far I am really liking it. As you all probably know it's pretty much bone stock and NOT fast, but that's not really the point...

Pictures taken yesterday:






There is some of the typical typical rust around the rear wheel wells and gas door, but the body is in decent shape. I don't even like looking at the rear undercarriage though.
I have not decided yet if I want to keep it close to stock and run in stock AWD class, or spend buttloads of cash trying to make it competitive in the open class. Either way, I'll post some updates here. Thanks for reading about my little project!

Lookin' good; I like it in blue

Looks good mang.

That bay is very clean.

This weekend I did my first rallycross with the new alltrac. I think I mentioned before, RallyX and Ice racing are among the main reasons I bought this car. I am impressed with how nimble it is despite the weight and how it feels very much at-home on dirt. It was very easy to get the car to rotate, perhaps too easy as off-throttle oversteer was an issue in some spots of the track. I wish I had installed some better tires to run on though, as the old dry-rotted firehawks were less than spectacular in the dirt. Next event it will be time for some snow tires so I can be a little more competitive and stay in stock class (for now).

Oddly enough, the car got some attention because very few people had seen a 165 before. It was kind of a nice feeling parking next to a *yawn* STi and having people pay attention to the Celica instead. I actually had a few people ask me if it was AWD, despite the obvious all-trac decal on the back and SA (Stock AWD) class on the window. Overall I did alright... This was a very well set-up coarse IMO, just a few wet/rutted spots that were easy to mess up if you got off the line. Later in the day the coarse is run backwards, and it was MUCH faster. It was a 3 hour drive for me so I left before the trophies, but based on comparing times I beat a couple of the WRX's, a DSM and an STi (by 2+ seconds) that were also in the stock AWD class. I could say it was because I had better equipment :wink: 8)