Hi, a friend is thinking of buying this car and we're not exactly sure whats what with it.

I was told that its basically the same engine as the ST185 GT-Four but without the Turbo.... a 3S-GE instead of the GT-Four's 3S-GTE.

The one we've looked at has 4WS and the guy said its 185bhp. Just need to find out the full spec for the car so my friend can get a proper look at what this car actually is!!


Cheers,
Grant

 

Hello mate.

I drove several of these. I was initially looking for a St185 gt4 turbo but my funds were limited at the time, so i thought i would check out the GTR instead.

I can only describe the car as OK, not great. I felt that 185bhp was just not enough on a car as heavy as this and with 4wd stealing a lot of this bhp too me it really felt quite sluggish.

Tuning potential is obvioulsy limited too.

The car in itself was quite nice though, handled well for quite a heavy car and fairly well built.

Sorry, i cant help with the spec levels of this car but after driving a couple of them i decided that it wasnt for me.

What is your mate expecting from the car? if he is not expecting great performance but with a nice balanced drive he may like it.

I think the price of the car is major factor, there wasnt a great deal of price difference between the 3s-gte so if he can get a good deal then the car gets bonus points on value.

Don't laugh but I ended up buying yet another saab turbo and actually I'm glad that I did.

 

I had a GT4 ST185 before the Saxo and even with a few mods that was a bit sluggish at 220bhp. They're an incredibly heavy car and although the midrange is sweet they're not that fast off the mark.. Mine was sub 7.5's but not by much.

I'm pretty sure the GT-R is designated ST183, the GTi being ST182. Personally I'd recommend waiting for the right GT4 to come along, the insurance isn't too heavy on them and as a first dabble into Turbo tuning they're a good and reliable piece of engineering, if not the fastest from stock.

The 3S-GE engine in the Celica is identical to that in the Rev 1 MR2 Mk2 so I'm not convinced they're pushing 185bhp though I'm prepared to be corrected on that. For the record the MR2 was putting out 154bhp in UK trim and 165-odd as an import (to counter the Cat).

 

the gtr is a 4 wheel steer not a 4 wheel drive and it is a jap spec hence willl not be pushing out 185bhp but 185ps iirc

 

165ps(121kw)/6800rpm
19.5kg･m(191.2nm)/4800rpm

Those are the power & torque specs.

 

Indeed the GT-R is a ST183.. i.e a ST182 2.0 litre 16v with 4ws.
Not really similar to the ST185.
Well known fact the ST185 was the heaviest model GT-Four but with a boost controller and a few other mods there is a fair few running 300bhp.

 

And their basic out of the box handling is more fun than most scoobies. Mine tends to slightly understeer in the wet and go into nice drifting oversteer in the dry. Lovely car to drive, you also sit lower.

Funnily my previous three Toyota MR2's also had the same type of handling, love it

Having said that, my STi would leave it for dead.