In the review I saw, the car is still a pre-production build, without a proper gearbox or properly tuned engine. If that's the case, then I suspect they're not going to get very good figures yet.

Never mind an Evo 6, at the moment, a Lotus Elise will out-accelerate it for a saving of £480K.

I suspect that the final figures will be somewhat lower, it has to offer Mclaren F1 performance for that price.

IntegraR: You're not one of those people who talks to himself when reading magazines in WH Smiths??

 

well, Id like to say it was me, but it wasnt

anyway

 

Here's what I wrote to Autoexpress after reading their review on it:
"That Toyota cost almost £500 000 to produce so you would expect something that would topple the comparitively low priced Porsche 911 Turbo, and with that sort of spending input, a Ferrari Modena.
Strange then that all this "F1 monster" can muster, is the rather low benchmark 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds (low in the modern Supercar sense).
Now, since a £32 000 Mitsubishi Evo 6 can achieve this a full half second quicker than the Toyota, where exactly did the other £468 000 go? hopefully not into the creation of that ugly front nose.
For a car penned as "the New Years fastest Supercar", and especially one that Toyota invested £500 000 in, the results should have been a lot better, in the realm of the McClaren F1, not something that would lose to a £32 000 Japanese rival, that at the same time can provide 4 doors, 4 seats, and a large boot."
Thats what I recon, why do it unless you come up with something that is amazingly fast? a Celica with a Turbo and internals could get close to that figure, for under £15000, so why did they put half a mill into it? dumb car.

 

Hmm.
I dont think its going to cost 500,000 on the road!

If thats all its cost to put together Id say thats a bargain.
Wonder how much the prototype scoobs had spent on them!?

Still its not a KONI equipped cav, so its not going to be the best for handling
and its not got a cossie under the bonnet, so its obviously got a pants engine

robski

 

Talk to myself? well, yes, occassionally.
I like to stand, flick through mags, and say things like "this is outrageous" and "I dont belieeeve it" while reading the mags, before waving my walking stick at the youngsters blocking the path to the boiled sweets counter.
robski, as I understand it, the car isnt made for production, rather as a showcase for Toyota's F1 glory (?), and they have taken a base Celica, and put all this money and developement time into making a one off Supercar, like taking a Subaru Impreza Turbo, and investing £500 000 into making it as fast as they possibly can.
In that respect, I recon its a BIG failure.
I mean, they use a base model GT-S, 0-60 of 7.4 secs, and then totally rebuild it with the singular objective being speed, spen half a million pounds, and come up with something that doesnt have anything like the performance figures you would expect.
It just shows, big HP doesnt necessarily mean big speed, nor does excessive spending lead to a "Supercar" worth a ****.

 

Nah, the car was built as a fun project (initially) to celebrate the new Celica Model.

Millen had wanted to do something to the new Celica the moment it came out. He had started by putting in the 4WD system and had bolted up an ST205 GT4 engine.

Toyota heard about it and decided they would like to help so a (WRC) TRD Corolla lump was fitted instead and the restrictor removed.

Millen has said many times, that if he knew he would get a TRD lump he would have put in a decent gearbox/4WD system from the start.

This car is not and never was designed for 1/4 mile times or 0-60 shootouts. If you could see the power/torque curves you would understand why, i.e. nothing for most of the rev. range then a little window of mega-power.

Basically a bodge project

Cheers

Ian

 

Toyota seem to come up with some crackers don't they? Did anyone ever see that Picnic(MPV) with a race tuned ST205 engine in it? Aparently it was discussed over lunch one day and built the next cos they had aspare engine lying around at TTE! Scary or what!

 

Happens all the time at Toyota, and I guess at other car makers.

I know they recently had a little project going in the UK at Toyota's mechanics training facility.

Someone 'found' an old TTE ST185 engine (2L Turbo) pushing out about 440 lb/ft and about 400 bhp. So what did they do with it ? Dropped it into a Yaris of course

Cheers

Ian