Mondo

I have a 140 and it's one of the most woefully underpowered cars I've ever driven! Granted, I drive a 400bhp Datsun most of the time, but still...

That's beyond devastating...!! :o

When I used to live in Middlesbrough about 10 years ago, I had a Calibra. Car was always parked just outside the front door and I can't even begin to calculate how many windows I had to replace in that car during the time I lived there!! Some people (scumbags) will damage something for no other reason than because it's nice and it's not theirs... hateful little scrotes...!!

This mechanic who told you that info is misinformed. ALL ST205s had 4-pot front brakes and twinpot rears..... , JDM cars are restriced to 112 mph, not 100 mph...

Seeing as people want to know: The leather that Toyota used through the years is, frankly, crap. It does like to stretch and, after a while, the seats look crap as well. Alcantara does have a small amount of stretch in it, but only on one axis (whereas leather stretches in all directions). So using it on seat centres will lead to less sagging than using Mr T's leather. There's always a downside though. No matter what anyone tells you, Alcantara is simply not as durable or robust as leather is. So it will wear faster and it will look a bit tired faster! As for "colouring the stitching"... well, let's just say I use expensive thread because I want it to be colour-fast in all conditions...

Definitely not ST205 calipers, those.

My first upgrade would be the brakes - the standard twinpots on the Beams were never quite up for the task, in my opinion. That's why I swapped to the full ST205 setup on mine, and they were superb! Bigger brakes, properly uprated suspension then start looking for more power!

Turbo'ing your engine will remove some of what makes it a good engine because you'll have to lower your compression for a start. In my opinion, you'd be better of swapping a 3S-GTE motor into your shell if you want to go forced induction.

Highly detailed Beams supercharger thread! Read the above and be prepared to be dumbfounded by the cost involved in supercharging the Beams engine! As for nitrous... given that your engine currently runs a rather high compression ratio, I'd be disinclined to force much more pressure through it, to be honest. Less weight = more power. Strip the car out. Or just enjoy the driveability and fun factor that the Beams provides. You may never be able to compete with the Big Boys in it, but you'll still surprise quite a few cars out there.

You need to have these vacuum metalised to rechrome them. That's how the finish is achieved from the factory. And it aint cheap!!

Alcantara is more expensive because it's man-made and phenomenally hard-wearing. It retails for between £85 - £150 per metre and is 1.4 metres wide. An average full-size leather hide is around 5 square metres and a top quality, UV treated upholstery hide can set you back £300 plus delivery. In comparison, approximately 5 square metres of Alcantara (even at £85 per metre) will sting you for £476 (4 metres long x 1.4 metres wide). As a rough guide to coverage, 5 square metres will usually cover a pair of front seats. Another 5 square metres for the rear seats. So, anyone who fancies a full Alcantara retrim but balks at the £1,000+ quote they're given, just try and remember that the poor trimmer would like to try and get some sort of payout for the huge amount of time and effort that goes into building seats...

Any of those options would've terrified me insurance-wise at 19...!!

Lousy news, mate. Can't abide things like this happening!!

Last time I enquired about these, Halos weren't available for a Celica but Brisk plugs (slightly less super, as I understand) were. I ended up putting Brisks in the Beams when I serviced her as Halos weren't available.

Mine's laquered and it's just flat white.

142mph...?

Silly me! I should've instantly pounced on the opportunity to own one of these ultra-rare beasties!!

£1,350...??!!

There seems to be a bit of a spate of people leaving Celicas at the moment. Still, from change comes growth (and all that sorta stuff)... having seen the silver Faff, I'm interested to see what Jap turbo nutter car follows it!

Wow. It's quite strange to see a concept car that actually looks so much like the production car that followed it!! Damn good read, that Not if they ended production of the marque in 2006... (yes, I'm aware that's 36 years)

Does anyone know of such a thing as a specialist in the Beams engines around the British Isles at all? I know there are plenty of folk who intimately know the 3S-GTE engine, but what about the Beams...? Anyone any ideas?

I'm looking to find out what differences there are between exhaust systems for turbo'd cars and naturally aspirated ones. I know all about the manifolds - I'm wondering if there's any differences in backbox design, more than anything. The reason I ask is this: I mated a Blitz Nur Spec backbox (from an ST205) with custom 2.5" pipework to the standard Beams centre section (2.25" pipework) and I can't help but think that she's down on power ever since I did that! I appreciate that I may have simply "gotten used" to the power of the car, but it does feel noticably less rapid since the exhaust was modified? Could it be the 2.5" pipework reducing the back pressure? Is the GT-Four rear box too free-flowing for an NA engine? Anybody got any thoughts please....?