1988 Toyota Celica ST165 IMSA (California) - SOLD!

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layingback

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One of the 77 1987 IMSA GTO Championship celebration editions prepared by TRD and Mully for each of the Toyota Dealers in So Cal, 1 each, this one I bought from Santa Maria Toyota (when under previous management).

Excellent car, I am loathe to part with it after exactly 20 years, but need to because I can't justify shipping it Internationally, especially as it'll be a wrong-hooker over there.

No dents, no damage, no repairs, original interior and paint. It is absolutely stock. A Californian car, it has never been raced, rallied or even used in the snow. It has never even been through a car wash: you can see the original pinstripes are intact. Initially used as a daily driver, it has always been garaged, with either a cover or screen/towels over dash and seats when parked in the sun.

Only 85,000 miles.

A great specimen for someone who real appreciates the marque, and wants to continue to 'baby' it, so that they can enjoy it for many years to come.

Here's a few images, there are more photos and details on my website layingback.net.

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Location: California Central Coast

Means of Contact: PM me, or contact me through my website.

Price: $5,500 obo for a quick sale.

I will include the clean Toyota Workshop manual for the model (2 volumes), as well as a now fairly worn custom-fit 3-layer car cover. Tires are good, it is still in use, and has almost entirely be used on long runs (20 - 300 miles).
 

RedCelicaTRD

Moderator
Interesting. Always good to get more info on the history of the IMSA editions.

And before anyone says anything, this is not a thread to bicker with the seller about his asking price. You start "problem" post, I'll delete them.
 
..... wow :shock:

that is a beautiful original ST165, as good as I have seen. 8k is pushing it but I can see you finding a buyer for it, may have to wait awhile
 

Rick89GTS

New member
BoostedBlueToyotas":1eai7ayc said:
.....8k is pushing it but I can see you finding a buyer for it, may have to wait awhile
I agree, most AllTrac owners don't have a lot of cash and I doubt they'd spend that much on a 20-year-old ST165 that's not exactly fast or particularly collectible.
Still, great condition on your 165, thanks for sharing some history and good luck with the sale.
 

Gary ST165

New member
fantastic looking time warp 1 owner car.

the way i see it , this type of car is very collectable. if this was in the UK i would be on your door step now having a thorough snoop around.

8)
 

turbo4wd

Moderator
Rick89GTS":1d0fgkb9 said:
BoostedBlueToyotas":1d0fgkb9 said:
.....8k is pushing it but I can see you finding a buyer for it, may have to wait awhile
I agree, most AllTrac owners don't have a lot of cash and I doubt they'd spend that much on a 20-year-old ST165 that's not exactly fast or particularly collectible.
Still, great condition on your 165, thanks for sharing some history and good luck with the sale.

Being he's the original owner, the low miles, and excellent condition of the exterior/interior as per the pics - and lets just say for the sake of argument that the engine runs strong and the tranny shifts great - I think the price would be justified. He is free to ask what he wants for it..

It would make an excellent collector car..
 

Rick89GTS

New member
^I don't disagree. $8,000 or $80,000, he can ask whatever he wants; power to him if he can get it. I'm just saying that the market for our cars is small compared to other "collectibles."
 

layingback

New member
turbo4wd":y58qbwq0 said:
- and lets just say for the sake of argument that the engine runs strong and the tranny shifts great - I think the price would be justified.

The car drives just like it did off the forecourt. Actually a little better as it had the '89 ECU conditional recall upgrade, which cured the part throttle hesitation it initially had, esp. when cold. The engine and transmission are fine. Every thing works. Some groaning from the new steering belt as noted on my site - needs tightening I'm told. Wear on the leather gear knob and boot, and the finish is worn off the A/C button. Otherwise everything works as it should. Oh, and the mechanical speed cable is a tad noisy when cold. And unlike *all* of the ST165s from Northern California Toyota dealers it has ABS brakes - was living in Bay Area at the time, and had to travel 250 miles to nearest So Cal dealer to get one with ABS. Which is how I ended up with an IMSA edition.

It's had the usual '88 Toyota and ST165 issues - as detailed on my website - but all were addressed at the time.

It is still great fun to drive, even with a Supra TT in the garage, and if I didn't have to sell it, I wouldn't. And it's a California car so it's not rusty. As well as ABS, it has almost every other option bar leather seats: 8-way adj driver's seat, AM/FM 4-speaker + sub upgrade, with EQ, A/C, Cruise, slide/tilt power sunroof, mats.

For IMSA history buffs, the 77 cars were replicas of the Long Beach Grand Prix (CART) pace car. Each So Cal dealer had to buy one to fund the pace car. Each dealer owner got to drive "their" car around the Long Beach track behind the pace car for 3 laps before the main event, and then home to their dealership.

Of the 77 cars, I know one was shipped from Bay Area to Portugal and wrapped around a telephone pole, and I have personally seen 5 others on the road in California.
 

88st165

New member
wow, when i got my red one it had 44k and it wasnt even close to the condition as this one is in, amazing. good luck with the sale. i hope it goes to a good home.
 

Shaggz00

Active member
Amazing example!
I am curious about the sub upgrade you mentioned. Is this a Toyota upgrade or an aftermarket item?
 

layingback

New member
Shaggz00":19zlpe89 said:
Amazing example!
I am curious about the sub upgrade you mentioned. Is this a Toyota upgrade or an aftermarket item?

I don't know what they called it, it wasn't a recall per se, but if your service guy reported the right symptoms, they would change out the "computer" to the version fitted to the '89 model. My service guy was a "car guy" (prepped and raced Corolla and owned a Celica GTS) and was on top of all this stuff. He asked me leading questions, although I'd not been concerned about it, being use to keeping highly tuned 4 cyl engines idling (e.g. 1500cc Ford Cortina pre-X-flow on 12.5:1 comp on 101 octane - equiv to 103/4 US - that would still knock and wouldn't come 'on cam' before 3.5K!) but I must have answered correctly 'cos Toyota updated it under warranty. Back then there was no only no way to flash it, they couldn't even change out the chip, the whole unit, case/heatsink and all was replaced. It did feel better after though. Say slowing for a light in 2nd at low revs and it goes green, it meant diff between dropping to 1st or cleanly picking up in 2nd. Toyota claimed '89 had 5bhp and 5ftlbs more than '88 and the ECU was the only diff, but I don't know if the increased numbers came from Toyota Engineering or Toyota Marketing ;-)
 

Rick89GTS

New member
Good info, there's been a lot of talk about the cold "sluggishness" of the 88 versus the 89 model. I wonder if we can still action this under warranty, 20 years later like the radiator overflow tank recall.

layingback":2281vgtr said:
Shaggz00":2281vgtr said:
.... I am curious about the sub upgrade you mentioned. Is this a Toyota upgrade or an aftermarket item?

I don't know what they called it, it wasn't a recall per se, but if your service guy reported the right symptoms, they would change out the "computer" to the version fitted to the '89 model. My service guy was a "car guy" (prepped and raced Corolla and owned a Celica GTS) and was on top of all this stuff. He asked me leading questions, although I'd not been concerned about it, being use to keeping highly tuned 4 cyl engines idling (e.g. 1500cc Ford Cortina pre-X-flow on 12.5:1 comp on 101 octane - equiv to 103/4 US - that would still knock and wouldn't come 'on cam' before 3.5K!) but I must have answered correctly 'cos Toyota updated it under warranty. Back then there was no only no way to flash it, they couldn't even change out the chip, the whole unit, case/heatsink and all was replaced. It did feel better after though. Say slowing for a light in 2nd at low revs and it goes green, it meant diff between dropping to 1st or cleanly picking up in 2nd. Toyota claimed '89 had 5bhp and 5ftlbs more than '88 and the ECU was the only diff, but I don't know if the increased numbers came from Toyota Engineering or Toyota Marketing ;-)
 

layingback

New member
Rick89GTS":2wr7bm4s said:
Good info, there's been a lot of talk about the cold "sluggishness" of the 88 versus the 89 model. I wonder if we can still action this under warranty, 20 years later like the radiator overflow tank recall.

Doubt it. When the already-replaced-under-recall radiator blew from heat soak in 1996, due to failed sensor not bringing the fan on, Toyota would not even pay part of the cost, even though replacement radiator was clearly different again.

BTW the recall was not for the overflow tank - the radiator header, the top part of the radiator - is what goes. Opens up all the way along like it was made of putty. It's a racing style crossflow radiator so the rally car could use its allowed 300bhp, great for racing/rallying, but a problem for road use 'cos the water flow is nil when pump stops, not even normal thermal flow is going to move it. That sticker on the door about running the turbo for 20-120 secs before shutting off if really hot, applies to rad too, let electric fan come on and go off again before turning off is wise.

ST165 was essentially the rally car, very little could be changed in the immediate post-Group B "supercar" rules, but engine could be tuned to 300 (nominal) bhp. Road cars were just to met the homologation regs. ST185 was designed first as road car, then made into rally car - first attempt at 300bhp failed miserably, it overheated like crazy in a stage, due mostly to air-air intercooler vs ST165's air-water one causing way more under hood heat. So the ST185 that actually rallied had a very, very different under hood layout to road car to keep its cool. Fortunately for Toyota the rules were a lot more lax by then.

(Brings back memories of seeing Kankkunen going up the hill from the start in Sweet Lamb out of the "sheep dip" really early on a dar,k freezing British morning with iced over gravel and puddles, on full throttle with the traction control - and Kankkunen's arms and the steering wheel - working overtime. Sounded like a loud machine gun round, but looked spectacular - for what should have been an uphill drive in a straight line! But boy was it cold 1 day after leaving the Californian heat!)

So look out for '89s being parted. Or, to get back to the topic of this thread - buy my '88!
 

Gary ST165

New member
layingback":1ls0cole said:
For IMSA history buffs, the 77 cars were replicas of the Long Beach Grand Prix (CART) pace car. Each So Cal dealer had to buy one to fund the pace car. Each dealer owner got to drive "their" car around the Long Beach track behind the pace car for 3 laps before the main event, and then home to their dealership.

another free bump 8)

st165pacecarresize.jpg
 

layingback

New member
Yeah, thanks, but, but: I wanna sell my car! ;-)

OK, I'll make a deal, I'll continue supplying info even after one of you buys it! 'S that fair?
 

layingback

New member
Gary ST165, Thanks for the poster image. Never seen that before.

I bought the car originally over the phone, but with the caveat that I see it first... I was worried from the dealer's description that the IMSA GTO Champion decals would be exactly like those of the pace car! Like Chevy have been known do with pace car replicas. Fortunately not. I was relieved to discover that they are a lot more tasteful.
 

smog7

Moderator
I just went to see this car earlier this week, and all that I have to say is wow.. awesome condition for being 20 years old. I doubt that anyone, anywhere will find an all trac, much less an IMSA edtion st165 in this good of condition. Mark was kind enough to let me view and photograph the car. He even took me for a drive, knowing full well that I had no intention to purchase the car. Mark is an awesome car loving guy. Whoever buys this car will be getting a deal.
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