Celica-versary

This was an entry I was working on before last week’s health scare. I just added the pictures and let it rip…

Last year, Nov. 8th, I purchased a car I’d always had on my top list and now that I’ve owned it for a year, I thought I’d give it a review.

The 2000 Toyota Celica GT-S is a mid-range sports car, not a super-car, although the dramatic styling does catch a lot of peoples’ attention, including mine when it was first introduced, and lead many to assume it’s a far more expensive car than it actually is ($20,000 retail new in 2000 for a GT-S, $8-10,000 for a used one today). Added to that is the fact that the Celica was dropped in 2005 as a Toyota model, so there are a limited number of them around, and as a result it still stands out. Due to a number of decisions to make the car true to the racing-inspired looks, including a difficult to maintain powerband in the GT-S, the number of people who purchased the car remained small as well, keeping the unique on. Another reason it has always attracted me is that it’s a character car: people who drive the manual 6-speed GT-S always have particular reasons (I won’t touch on anyone who buys an automatic gearbox sportscar, that’s… they’re missing something).

The Engine

First of all, the GT-S (not the GT) has an interesting engine. It feels like a peppy 4 cylinder Toyota engine (much like the one on my 1991 Celica I owned before some kid hit it) all the way up to just shy of 6,000 RPM. You won’t leave anyone in your dust, but you can quickly work your way up the 6 gears quite happily. It gets decent gas mileage (high 20s in town, low 30s on the highway). But the fun comes when you rev the engine up past 6,000 RPM. Between 6,000 and 8,000 RPM, the VVTL-i twin-cam engine reconfigures itself to dump an extra 40 horsepower into the mix, becoming a naturally aspirated (read non-turbo) 100 horsepower per liter engine.

The howl sounds something similar to a Yamaha bike roaring down the street. And the car feels like someone hit a turbo button the second you pass 6,000 RPM.

This is both the joy and the Achille’s Heel of the car. For one, up until that 6,000 RPM crossover moment, the engine is a 140HP engine without much torque or acceleration. Not much fun. The sudden burst is annoying to some, as you really have to tailor your driving to an ‘all or nothing’ sort of approach. Because as the engine hits 8,000 RPM, you need to shift (quickly!) to second gear before the RPMs fall back under 6,000, which is damn tricky to do. 6,000-8,000RPM is a narrow band, and keeping the revs in there to keep the VVTL-i engine in that ’sweet spot’ takes some doing.

As a result, the automatic version of the car is less than inspiring, and less-than-stellar shifters are left lurching in and out of the 6,000 RPM mark, with the resulting loss of power. It’s not a forgiving configuration, and it’s not surprising it wasn’t too popular.

I freaking love it, however.

That being said, this is no Porsche or Ferrari, the 0-60, even with all that carrying on and roaring, is still 6.6 seconds. Certainly fast, but a 2000 Corvette has a 4.9 second 0-60, so you’re not all that.

However, with solid gas mileage from the engine, and basically two different profiles (peppy fun, and screaming), it’s a somewhat nice compromise. Edmunds noted in their long term driving test that among performance oriented cars, the Celica’s MPG was number one.

Note that this is the same engine used in the Lotus Elise, although the Lotus, at 1,000 lbs less than the Celica in chassis, achieves super-car acceleration with it, making a used Celica ‘an excellent poor man’s Elise,’ as a race car driver who’d considered getting a Celica just this weekend told me.

Handling

Where the car shines is handling. The Edmunds long term review of Celica has my favorite quote, calling it ‘a go-kart with air conditioning.’ With Macpherson struts, 16 inch wheels (I recently put on some Yokohama Avids), and very responsive steering, the car is most fun wherever you can find the twisty. It’s this element that gets the Celica compared to cars way, way out of its class by every review I spotted before buying it (Mercedes, Corvette, etc). When people keep saying a car I could afford falls short of cars that cost 5-6 times as much that I’ll never own, my interest is piqued.

And yes, the twisty as I’ve experienced it, is very fun on the Celica. Find a backroad and the car just sticks. There is very little understeer, and it is very forgiving around corners, letting you guide it right back out of a slide should one occur, with just a nudge and a touch.

The other shining note is that the GT-S uses large disc brakes on all four wheels. Combine that grip with the large wheels, ABS, and the very light 2,500 pound chassis, and you get 60-0 stopping power in 100 feet!

Basically I can’t accelerate like a Ferrari, but I sure can stop like one.

Practicality

In addition to all that, the Celica is routinely ranked by Consumer Reports as a best used car bet, unlike other interesting sports cars that come with maintenance needs. This sports car could be used as a daily driver. The ride, while race-inspired, is comfortable for long commutes, though the two back seats are for petite people or short trips.

Because it’s a hatchback, the car becomes a fast favorite. I prefer loading things in the Celica to any sedan, as you have more trunkspace along with a higher ceiling. I can fit a bike easily in the back of my Celica by just tossing it in there. Getting a bike in my wife’s Corolla was a test of our marital communications and teamwork skills.

The downsides

Obviously it’s hard for four people to hop in and go somewhere, so I’m usually only packing a single friend in it, or driving around myself. That sometimes complicates matters.

The Celica also has very high C pillars right in your blindspot. This is a car that demands you set your mirrors just right, and use the heck out of them. There is no craning over your left shoulder before changing lanes. It can be unnerving in heavy traffic.

Cupholders in the GT-S manual sit right behind the shifter. If you have a 12oz can of Pepsi, the top is just level with the console and it’s barely noticeable and not in the way. But in the modern world of Big Big cups of soda, you’ll be holding your elbow up while shifting to avoid the top of the cup. I’ve taken to ordering small or even kiddie cup sizes.

The last downside is that due to the smaller number of cars, the after market parts for this Celica is not hopping. There are mufflers and intakes, but getting a supercharger or other upgrades are very expensive and limited to hobbyists, so I’ll probably stick to the stock car for the short future.

Which doesn’t really sadden me. With the new Yokohamas and the surge at 6,000RPM, I still get this big-ass grin on my face whenever I rip around the bend of an onramp, the car gripping the asphalt hard and roaring its way to wherever I want.

Life is short, the more grins a day you can get, the better.

Filed under the topic Tech on November 26th 2008 at 4:10 pm. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this entry to keep track of comments. You can also use to trackback.