This is the 10 year and counting story of my white WRC model bought damaged from Japan then shipped to Canada in 2003 and towed to USA in 2004.
Car was then towed in June 2005 to friends shop in rural midwest USA and has been there every since. Why you say that long.? Delay in repairs has been
due to house, women and money. Sometimes one sometimes the other but usually all 3 !!. Car was bought as a 30 Birthday present to myself and here i am
months away from 40. Still have same passion for car as i did 10 years ago. Since so rare in US i consider this car a classic in same vein as 70's Celica's .

Car was towed 2200 miles from Calgary to just east of Chicago . 2200 miles and 4400 overall in 4 days alone and towing a car both ways. You don't know the meaning of remote until you are driving at 4am in Northern Montana . Felt like last person on earth !. While crossing the boarder the US Customs agent (who obviously was not a car guy) asks "What are you doing with car?" I said just driving in woods in back of my house of course. He looked and me and seem to not care about my answer and let me go on my way . Once in car and driving in Montana i was screaming like a little school girl in car. Towing through Chicago i had a pack of young kids all hanging back around trailer . Also every person i passed on highway would point out Celica to passenger. RHD still a novelty in USA compared to Europe and Japan. Picture below is after 1100 mile drive and stopped for a rest . The center drive shaft is unhooked for towing but should have rented the full car trailer as drag on truck doubled my petrol bill on way home .


Pictures below are from car when i picked up car and later with new hood and wings installed . Car was wrecked in Japan by woman near a ski lodge after sliding off road into a railing . Silver front cut is from a halfcut bought by ST165 owner and had no need for body parts. 25 more hours of straight driving to
pick up !!






Only positive of long delay has been large stockpiling of rare JDM optional parts

Finally at the frame shop in June 2013


Making progress. All straight , wings bolt on and bonnet closes again . Hard to get now but all the new parts for st205 came from Toyota California warehouse in 2005. Bonus points if can guess the little car in primer in back of picture. Hint not Japanese



More pictures to come . Long journey to go before car is back on road. Amazingly car started right up and idled smooth after not being started for over 5 years.

Looks interesting!

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Kris
95 ST205 - slept for 10 years, now waking up...
Avensis
http://www.gtfours.co.uk
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Turbocharging - the replacement for displacement

I thought there was an issue getting these road legal in the USA due to import regulations or some such? Cool story though look forward to more pictures.

Nice

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St205 WRC - Running sweet.

Can't see in pictures but car has Recaro confetti interior F/R as well as correct seat rails from Toyota.
Seats are like new and importer said never seen a set of confetti seats in this amazing condition.

During recent holiday to California convinced my GF to drive 100 miles out of way to stop by a place called Venus auto parts in
Sacramento. Place was a huge warehouse stacked to the ceiling with JDM parts ,clips ,etc.. Asked if he had any
coilovers for ST205 and older Asian gentleman goes into bathroom and he has a set of TEIN's behind the toilet.!!
Well only $400 so i picked up and lucky for me FEDEX location right next to hotel to ship home. As i was leaving he threw in
EDFC for Teins . Awesome !!


Have a ton of pictures of parts i added over years and here is one of the weird ones . I am missing Grey thick carpet mats . These are all optional mats from Toyota.Not sure why i have all these and another set of brand new set of Hypersport mats i will never use while driving . Car mat fetish !!!

Hello and welcome

It's always nice to see any car saved from the crusher. Seems like quite a project.

Will you be able to register it for road use or does the smog/licence laws prevent that

If you read any Japanese car forums in US there is always a thread over importing ,etc.
Fact of matter is Government is only involved when car is at port. If you make it out of
port then really it all depends where you live . I have ID number for car assigned by state
and legally followed state laws and was inspected by police.There is no Government police
driving around looking for RHD cars. Sure Skylines has been confiscated but that was a well
know case with Motorex and involved many cars. I just saw a older guy last week driving a
Nissan Figaro ( 2 seater not sure if Figaro) which was RHD and had Florida plates. Florida will
give a title to anything with wheels so a lot of EBAY RHD cars have Florida paperwork. Most of
these threads are kids with 0 experience dealing with importing or "heard about someone"
getting busted . I am stubborn old guy so i don't wrapped up in internet chatter and go my own way.

Where i live in upper Great Lakes region we have no smog or MOT testing . Wheels,lights,seatbelts about all
you need to get paperwork for car. Trust me i have seen some rusty gems they lost the exhaust years
ago and tires are showing belts.

There is a old rich doctor in Ohio where i used to live who has same car as me and it was titled. He also has a
Toyota Century used by Japanese Government and a Nissan all directly from Japan . Met him at a show
last year but sadly brought his 4 door customized Bentley.

I think you're the only American with a real ST205 I've heard of.

Only 3687 days since i bought it to this point
Notice perfect panel gaps - My paint guy is super
OCD about his work . Used to do Ferrari repairs and restorations
but in personal life a die hard Toyota fan.
Has some amazing Toyota's in his collection.
At one point we had 3 ST185'S and 205 in shop
Yellowchinaman i tried to keep record of all the ST205 in states
last count 6-7 running cars - Mine is only one imported thru Canada
before huge JDM boom started there due to 15yr importation rule

count your self lucky. btw are you missing head lamp rubbers?