The Forgotten Japanese Mustang

This is my dad’s 77 Toyota Celica. This was the last year this body style was implemented in this rare car.  For Toyota this was a great car that introduced them into the American car market as it was a cheaper copy of Ford’s Mustang. The resemblance is almost identical and made many people assume that the car was in fact a Ford Mustang. This car was very under-powered as it made only 99 horsepower, however this car was intended for enjoyment rather than racing. The Celica became a hit in the United States, but sadly few are seen on today’s roads. The Celica was built better than many of the American made cars of the era, but the car still faces rust issues due to the harsh chemicals put on the road during the winter. This car is intended for summer driving and caused my dad to put it away for almost 20 years as it wasn’t practical for a family and the weather conditions. Now we plan on reviving it and bringing back this amazing car to the roads of Washington.

Mazda RX-7

The Mazda RX-7 is another legendary car that was produced from 1978-2002. The car was RWD and produced  135 horsepower in the early years and then up to 276 horsepower in the final years of production. What sets this car apart form many other cars is its strange engine. The RX-7 uses a rotary engine rather than a normal engine with pistons.

The rotary engine is what it sounds like in which a rotor inside the engine rotates quickly in a circular motion and causes combustion that powers the car. You Tuber, Engineering Explained, best describes this engine in this video https://youtu.be/sd6pJtR4PaY. While this cars engine was very strange it was still a very fast car and provided a sport feel and a distinctive engine noise. The set backs to this car are that this style of motor requires a lot of maintenance and uses lots of oil to lubricate all the moving parts in the engine bay. With such a large amount of oil being used (sometimes burning up oil) the gaskets start to wear out and caused leaks in the engine and sometimes quite expensive repair bills (The later model of the RX-7 (RX-8) faced this problem even more than this model and drove the engine away from the car industry).

This car has become a widely modified car and has a huger fan base surrounding this car, especially the  1991-2002 model, as they still look like a modern car and have aged very well for being more than 15 years old. Due to the high popularity the car has thousands of aftermarket parts to purchase and change the look of the car, on top of that there are many after market kits to upgrade the engine and increase the horsepower produced.

The car also received a lot of popularity as it appeared in the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift movie, and was driven by one of the main charters (Han). In the movie the car is a orange and black last generation RX-7 with a Veilside aftermarket cosmetic kit that makes the car look completely different than its usually self.

 

I just hope that they bring back this car in the next few years, as it seems that the sports car industry is finally on the rise again.

The Subaru (Impreza) WRX (STI)

I know that I’m switching the whole idea of a Toyota based website with this post, but I would like to venture into the broader car world and share my thoughts and knowledge of other amazing cars.

Above is a picture of a 2017 Subaru WRX STI, and this is a very iconic car for Subaru, as it has been the face of there Rally Racing team for quite some time now. The car started out as the Subaru Impreza WRX and came in the standard model and the STI model, which had more horsepower and more performance parts and luxuries.The Subaru also came in a sedan model and hatchback model, which supported a sporty car while still supporting each driver’s needs of more or less cargo space. Now they have the Subaru Impreza as a new car platform and the Subaru Impreza WRX is now strictly called the Subaru WRX and still offers it’s STI variant, and the hatch back model is currently  no longer produced. Although in 2020 Subaru has announced they will redesign the WRX once again, so the hatchback could still be brought back.

The car uses a 1.5-2.5 Liter boxer engine that produces about 236-310 horsepower depending on the variant and year’s model. The boxer engine has been used in this car since it was first produced in 1992. The boxer engine is strange as it sits flat (commonly called a flat four engine) in the engine bay, many other engines sit upright/vertical  or at an angle. Engineering Explained, a popular car YouTuber, best explains it in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL69r96VfuU). The engine provides power to all four tires through Subaru’s AWD technology, and allows this car to perform great even in severe weather conditions. The newer models have a great new feature that allows you to change the power output to the differential, which are what spin your tires when you give your car gas.This feature of a changing differential means that you can increase the power out put to the rear/front tires and better fine tune the car’s performance to your own liking. YouTuber, Engineering Explained, provides a better idea of this in his video reviewing the 2016 Subaru WRX STI (https://youtu.be/_xcwf0DuoJ4)

With this car being an AWD vehicle it appeals to the Rally Racing market, as it performs amazingly during the wet, slick, and muddy courses. Rally Racing is a whole new type of race as your trying to go as fast as you can but it has lots of tight turns and can vary from road portions to muddy off-road portions on a course. This type of racing usually consists of two people in each car, one drives while the other one calls out each turn direction and states the angle of each turn. The cars in this style of racing are constantly beat up and repaired as going fast on some uphill courses lead to bottoming out  after the peak of the hill, or the dirt rock destroy the bumpers.Crashes also happen commonly in this race as pushing your car and driver to their limits on a sometimes inconsistent course can lead to bad outcomes.

 

The Toyota AE86

The Toyota AE86 was in production from 1983-1987 and was know as a cheap and affordable car when it was produced. It wasn’t seen as an aggressive car as it produced up to 112 horsepower stock, but it’s amazing handling and Rear Wheel Drive(RWD) helped this car become very popular. This car did make it’s debut in the United States as the Toyota Corolla GT-S, while Japan had many more variants( GT, GT-APEX, GTV, Sprinter Trueno, and Levin) with better performance, due to strict emissions in the United States. This car soon gained popularity due to the animated series, Initial D, in which the main character , Takumi Fujiwara, drives this car on the mountain passes of his town. Takumi drives a Toyota Sprinter Trueno that serves as his father’s tofu delivery vehicle, but at night Takumi uses it to race downhill against other street racers. The series is based of real places in Japan as the tofu shop and Mount Akina are real locations in Japan. The Tofu shop sadly was torn down not to long ago, and was a popular photo spot for fans of the animated series. However, Mount Akina is actually Mount Haruna in Japan and the same roads in the show can still be driven today. The Toyota AE86 is even alive today, as Toyota has released the Toyota 86 GT/Scion FR-S. This car is based on the same mechanics of the Toyota AE86, as it’s handling is exceptional but still lacks a huge amount of power (about 200 horsepower) compared to other modern day cars. The Toyota AE86 will still live on to perform it’s respected drifting legacy.

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