When you've owned the same car since March 1977, you've had p-l-e-n-t-y of time to give it some individual style. Cliff Hansen's RA28 fastback Celica is a prime example. When Cliff bought his brand-new Toyota coupe, it was in the era of big banger Fords and Holdens. "Everyone was too busy with Toranas," recalls Cliff. However, being quite taken by the sweet Celica shape, he thought he'd go for something just a little bit different.
Everything remained pretty well stock-as-a-rock on the car until the mid 1980s - when Cliff went ape with an 18RG 2-litre twin-cam engine. Cliff passed the motor on to Stewart Spencer at (what used to be) Bexo Motors for some headwork, cams and water injection. Oh, and we'd better mention the big nitrous kit that found its way on as well! With 235hp measured at the back wheels, this motor pushed the sexy coupe to a best quarter mile time of 13.5 seconds. Pretty respectable indeed.
Cliff was more than content to zap around with the giggle gas sucking engine, but temptation soon knocked on his door. A friend of his scooped a HKS turbo kit'd 18RG from an import wrecker and, well, Cliff had to have one too. Discussion with the importer revealed that another one of these rare twin-carburetted beasts was already on-route to Aussie shores - this one also equipped with a water-to-air intercooler. Cliff couldn't believe his luck.
After taking delivery of his new toy, Cliff pulled it all down for inspection. It seems that some wacky cowboy in Japan had installed the turbo kit onto the 18RG - but fitted high compression pistons into massively oversized bores! Due to the high comp, one of the pistons had been severely detonated - but everything else looked top-notch. Bexo Motors was again called upon to build up Cliff's new engine. Stewart increased the bore diameter to 92.5mm, slipped in a set of dished 22RE pistons (which are the perfect diameter), 16R rods and a 3.5mm stroker crank. This fattened the swept capacity out to 2.4 litres and gave a static compression ratio of around seven-to-one.
At the peak of this bored and stroked 18RG is now a Yamaha 18RGEU head. This was "cleaned up" and equipped with heavier duty TRD inner valve springs. One advantage of the 18RGEU head is that it already comes designed to run on unleaded - which makes Shell Optimax Cliff's current juice of choice. The HKS turbocharger kit pressurises two carbs in what's known as a blow-through set-up. Cliff also had the two Solex units modified to take extra boost and to deliver the correct mixtures. Interestingly, the aforementioned water-to-air heat exchanger core now works in conjunction with a mechanical pump driven off the crankshaft pulley. The water radiator is located behind the Holden Commodore VN V8 coolant radiator and has air drawn through by twin thermo fans. Induction air is filtered by a K&N pod on the end of a polished mandrel pipe.
The waste side of the head blows through an HKS manifold into a Garrett T04 turbo, now with a back-cut turbine. A 32mm RotoMaster external wastegate limits boost pressure to a hefty 21 psi. Flowing on, a 3½-inch dump pipe then takes gasses into a 3-inch stainless system with a single rear muffler. With the 2.4 litre four boosted to 21 psi, it's said to generate around 320 horsepower at the flywheel. This figure is gained from Stewart - the engine builder/tuner. With that kind of power, it's predicted that the car should be able to run a mid 12-second pass. And, by all accounts, it feels like it.
In addition to all that brawn, there's also a lot of beauty tucked under the hood. Cliff's fully prepared the car for shows, with full colour coding, wire and hose hiding, custom brackets, Lexan trim covers, plated fasteners and a graphic'd intercooler housing. Of course, the Samco hoses and heavy-duty clamps also serve a mechanical purpose.
Backing the hot 18RG block is a 289mm diameter Sachs pressure plate. Torque is then put through a rare close-ratio 5-speed 'box and a one-piece tailshaft that reaches back to the very interesting rear end. Cliff's used a 4.3:1 open-centre Hi-Ace diff with modified LM106 Toyota SR5 30-spline axles. At the end of these VR Commodore discs and calipers have been adapted to fit, while the front uses Toyota 4 Runner discs (also modified to suit) and finned 4-pot calipers from an unknown Japanese import 4WD. It's a giant upgrade over stock.
Suspension wise, Cliff's car is totally slammed. Fulcrum springs lower the body 4½ inches - "Any lower and it's hitting the bump stops," says Cliff. Teaming with these is a set of Pedders dampers, urethane bushes and some serious anti-roll hardware. Two K-Mac bars are fitted to the front and a single Selby bar at the rear.
And don't the RA28 Sleeka body (sometimes called the 'Mustang' Celica) look a beauty? Continental Restorations are credited with straightening out all of the sculpted panels - which, over time, had been accidentally altered by a taxi - while the paint job is the product of Karl at Arrow Custom. It is 800-series 2-Pack red (and, yes, it does look kinda orange). Contrasting with the paint are 17 x 8 inch TSW Hockenheims encrusted in Dunlop W1 Spec R rubbers. Overall, this is one sexy lookin' classic vehicle.
Inside is more of that show-winning attention to detail. Cliff took pains to perfect the carbon fibre covering on the dash facia and had two-piece door trim is vacuum-formed. The lower halves of the trims contain a Pioneer 6x9, while the rest of the audio gear includes a pair of Jaycar 10-inch subs and fill-in speakers in the rear side trims. Rounding out the cabin are Razo pedals, a carbon fibre look gear knob and wheel and Sparco Star recliners. It's ultra-neat and very functional.
The rear cargo area is also fully trimmed in black fabric and carries the battery in a plastic box.
With such a lot of effort gone into detail - which is something often overlooked these days - Cliff's earned a heap of trophies. Each year he's taken the car to the Willowbank Jamboree he's come back with a trophy for Top Coupe, Top Tudor or Top Engine Bay. There are four in all - in addition to those trophies he's won through Toyota car clubs. So - after being so all-conquering - what's left in store for the car? Cliff says he wants to take it off the axle stands a little more often, drive it "and do some skids".
Well said Cliff. We don't blame you.
|