Forum Id :
Bubba

Real Name:
Mark Thornton

Car:
Gen 7 Celica VVTi C2 Turbo

The car was bought in June 2001 when prices for Euro imports were still giving considerable savings over UK spec ones. A considerable saving of nearly £4k of Uk list price was gained and then had a spoiler fitted.For a long time the car stayed the same, it looked much the same as any other Black G7 G7 VVti and Bubba had no intention of modifying it as he loved the car in the way it was. It had cutting edge looks and the performance was OK.

One of the reasons he bought this was purely due to the fact this would do an average 0 -60 time while still being more frugal on petrol than his previous Vectra 2.5V6!

In about Feb 2002 he began to lurk on the newly formed Celica Club UK and just read all the posts without actually replying to any. He then decided to register on the forum and it was from here inspiration would be taken. Renowned throughout the club for not modifying his car, he even did not fit a Carcept lip to the front as his insurers would increase the premium.

During this time he looked at fine examples of G7’s including Simon Smith’s supercharged beast,Perry Byrne’s amazing 190, along with Stephen Grants Ice 190 and the lure towards the dark side of modifying began.

CelicaUK - Xmas 2002

StephenG:- Xmas 2002

During this time he got heavily involved with Celica Club Uk arranging numerous meets and then joining the admin team as he kept bugging them about this and that so they thought right let him put his money where his mouth is. Modifications to the car started very simply a rear infill, Skewer Sunstrip,tax disc holder some alloy pedals and then he moved onto an In Car PC (taking inspiration from Neil Watson) and got annoyed with it and only after 3 months in the car it was removed. Instead replacing it with an Ipaq with SatNav which was a lot smaller and worked a lot better!

That was about all he had done to his car but still helping to build Celica Club he was constantly seeing more and more great modified Celicas and it was around February 2003 that he started to think about joining the dark side as a fully fledged member. Why? Well his company were handing out redundancies and he took it with open arms so he could move to pastures new professionally and to modify his “ickle” 140. The aim was to get a new job and then use some of the money to modify his ickle 140 to something a bit more special.

Inspiration - Perry190

The “ickle”140 was fully tested on a European tour the following May with fellow Celica Club members Perry190, Mook, Simmo, Gary190 and Guam (who? Wheres he gone)which took in 5 countries in 7 days. This also included the infamous Switzerland run during which time a long term sprint saw an actual 138mph on a busy Swiss / French private road ;-). It was during this trip that ideas were formed and mulled over with his Euro compatriates and an insult on his lack of ickle 140 modifications from Guam made him more determined to have one of the best 140’s in the UK.

The car then spent 3 weeks at RAP during which the bodykit and neons were fitted, and the full inside out respray including the engine plastics and cabin accents. When Bubba collected the car he was speechless such a transformation he had not expected but the car still stood on 16 inch alloys .The League 18” Velocity wheels were waiting in the garage at home and were fitted upon the car’s return.

This was the day before Celica Club’s annual visit to Taddington and Bubba knew his new baby had to be shown. Upon members seeing it they did not believe how the car had been transformed and most made compliments about it to it’s owner.

It went in like this

Then all the car needed was the obligatory graphics designed by Bubba along with friend / fellow Celica owner and proprietor of Skewer – Mook to complete the look.

The original idea came from a dragon tatoo which Bubba and Mook played with to suit the lines of the Celica.

These were installed on one of the most foul days in march but yet again transformed the look of the car.

The days passed and so many people commented on the great looks of the car but in his heart Bubba new this car was all show but not a lot of go. Underneath it was still his “ickle” 140 and this had to change.

The Celica needed more power and as the Supercharged version was out of his price range(and was not widely available) he decided to get a newly released turbo kit from C2 Power. After spending many hours speaking with Gas from C2 the stage one turbo kit was ordered and the 5th kit to ever be made was delivered to Heathrow by one of C2’s employees.

The kit was initially designed for a LHD Celica not a RHD but Gas was sure that any installer worth their salt would be able to cope with this and do sime tiny modifications to the existing kit.

The car was booked in at JPS Motorsport as they are highly respected in the Supra world and were confident they could handle this.

Several deadlines were passed including Japfest 2004, and the now annual Euro Tour) He was promised on the eve of Japfest that his car would be ready but it appears that the garage had other plans as the garage owners Supra was rolling into Japfest and not Bubba’s Celica (the supra had been in pieces on Bubba’s visit only 2 days before).

Eventually the car was ready and the turbo was fitted and with the car tuned and dynode it had raised to an impressive 176WHP(Wheel Horse Power) and 166lbft Torque both recorded at the wheels. Power increasing nearly 70BHP at the flywheel but the torque shot up by nearly 90lbft over the standard 140.

A Greddy Profec E-01 boost controller was installed so that boost could be maintained and monitoring of injectors and various other parts could be deonThis was still with a stock airbox and the now found to be restrictive powerflow exhaust (the pipe was only 1.5” diameter). This car and it's owner took 4 awards at Celica Clubs Annual pilgrimage to JAE a feat only equalled the previous year by Perry190.

After JAE a new Blitz SUS LM CAI was fitted, a new Longlife Decat and Custom exhaust was installed to get some more air in squeezed in , and flow more out quicker. Then some AEM Big Brake disks were added to the mix to stop all this new found power. This is now the car you see today – the subject of a lot of time effort and hardship to create a stunning car! Will it stay the same - who knows only time will tell

Engine Bay- Turbo is at back