TTEETT GT4 Group-A rally build

TTEETT

New member
Hi guys, new member Graham from New Zealand. I purchased this car last week (March 2016) and plan on building it over the next year into a Group-A replica car to compete in a new "Group-A" free 1993 era class that will hopefully be part of the New Zealand rally series.

I have already had a lot of help from a couple of you, David, who has some awesome moulds to produce the Group-A style bonnet and bumper that were sold of my car. Also Kevin, who rally's a red Celica in the same events we often compete in.

The car is a 1991 or 1992 Celica GT-Four RC, it looks to have had an abusive adolescence, someone has fiddled with its wiring and looks to have installed a lot of sound equipment. After that it was dumped and pillaged of a few fruity bits, the RC bumper and bonnet for example are gone, with them the turbo and intercooler system and heaven knows what else.

Now, apart from the missing aesthetic stuff, I'm not overly worried as it will be a ground up dedicated rally build.

Small children and those with weak stomachs should look away now, she has bumps and bruises all over and the face is entirely black.. her shoes look to be off a another abused car.



Over the weekend I managed to drive down to Gisborne, a 6 hour drive, to inspect the car and pay the chap storing it. I dropped some GT4 wheels to go on it for transportation to a yet to find workshop space where work will commence.



After researching for the past couple of weeks, and speaking with our local Celica rally driver expert, Kevin, I am thinking I will run a Mitsubishi Evolution RS gearbox, transfer case and LSD's. This gives me a short ratio box and LSD options that are not available economically for the Toyota box. All going to loose plan, I can adapt this to the GT4 engine and hubs... all not going to plan, and what will exclude me from the Group-A series, I may well end up running a Mitsubishi engine. This is not ideal at all, but I am not going to get to romantic about this build, if its something lerned from my last car, you can't make orange juice with apples and I am all to aware of how fast the Mitsubishi's are after years of getting our arse kicked by them in our Subaru Impreza STI RA. Truth is the other "Group-A" cars come from Subaru and Mitsubishi are running engines, gearboxes and diffs from late model cars, I am not even going to bother trying to compete with these cars in a old Celica knowing I am at a massive disadvantage with an open front diff. Im also not too keen on spending 10k trying to upgrade and "work with what I have".

Anyways, thats my intro. Should be an interesting build. Unless I just give up in a few months.. then it will be a boring build.
 

aus jd 2703

New member
sounds interesting, evo transmissions have been put into gt fours, well milner ran a maktrak that was meant for a evo in his 205.

how flexible are the rules?
could you run a hybrid engine? 5sfe block and crank , with a beams 3sge head and caldina sump.

the end result would be a 2.1L with a decent rod ratio and twin variable cam timing. but very expensive..

there are dog engagement sequential options for the GT four how ever I don't believe they are a true barrel style sequential more a h pattern conversion using a fancy shifter.

currently there are no front (open) center (viscous) diff option although the has been progress with kaaz I believe, I wouldn't hold my breathe.

you picked a heavy car. Toyota quality comes at a price. my car is 1400kg with out a driver and barely any fuel. ive deleted the aircon compressor that's about it.
1300 is possible with composite hatch and lexan windows ($$$$) but getting below 1300 would be a mission especially with a rally spec cage.

just food for thought I for one will watch with interest how you go
 

TTEETT

New member
Thanks. I would say I could convince them to let me in the class with a Mitsubishi box and diffs etc, but there is no way I could run the engine.

Ideally I will run a strengthened 3SGTE, forged bottom end, tidied up head and a garret turbo. Looking for reliable power with flexible torque. Will run a Link G4 with antilag etc.

The car has its 3SGTE in it, it is missing the turbo setup and looks to be missing a few other bits. Will be in search of a few parts when I get it to the worship and asses whats missing.

The Mitsubishi gearbox option just opens up so many possibilities going forward and gives us a solid place to jump off from. Plus there is a massive aftermarket and technical support for the Mitsubishi gear.

I can buy a whole Evolution 4 parts car for the same cost a gear set for the Celica.
 
Evo gear box was only done once on Milner's hill climb car. It used MakTrak gear case with evo bell housing along with MakTrak transfer case and MakTrak rear diff. Also custom axles. You may as well build an Evo. Way less money and better results. Warner Lewis in UK has all the FG/CF parts you may possibly need for Celica. Quafe in UK says they have front and center diffs for our native transmission. SQS makes H pattern Dog ring 5 speed gear kits with proper gravel ratios. You can pick your brakes, suspension, electrical, fuel supply and safety equipment. Have fun. Not many Celica rally cars around.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Two possible stupid questions here. If all the RC bits are gone, are you sure it's even an RC? Not that it matters much with what you'll be doing, I just hate seeing real RCs get chopped up (though this one mostly has been already).

Second, if the Evo gear is so much cheaper for rallying, why not just build an Evo?
 

TTEETT

New member
Hi there. I am building a Celica because that was the winning car when I was 10 years old. Stood on the side of the forest and watched "El Matador" slide past shooting flames. It's a hero car to me. I do like the Burns/Manikin era Evo-5 though.

As for being a real RC, it's chassis numbers match up.
Won't be hacking anything up, that was done years ago.


rallygarage":u7edkcqk said:
Evo gear box was only done once on Milner's hill climb car. It used MakTrak gear case with evo bell housing along with MakTrak transfer case and MakTrak rear diff. Also custom axles. You may as well build an Evo. Way less money and better results. Warner Lewis in UK has all the FG/CF parts you may possibly need for Celica. Quafe in UK says they have front and center diffs for our native transmission. SQS makes H pattern Dog ring 5 speed gear kits with proper gravel ratios. You can pick your brakes, suspension, electrical, fuel supply and safety equipment. Have fun. Not many Celica rally cars around.

Thanks for info, appreciated. There are a few Celica's rallying here in NZ.

I will contact Quaife and see what the deal is. I have one of their diffs in my current tarmac rally car and its great, but as you will know, Torsen is not that good on gravel.

The Mitsi gearbox and drivetrain conversion seems pretty basic to me.
 
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