With the GT86 now readily available at Dutch dealers, Toyota NLD introduced the Toyota Sport Heritage Tour, for which they've taken some proper Toyota's from the Louwman Museum and put them on display at a few selected dealers in the country.
I went over to check it out and take some pics. Major disappointment was the JGTC Supra which turned out to be a UK plated POS plastered with Halfords/Autostyle crap. Bit of a shame. Also, apart from the TA64, all cars were locked.
What I did like though, was the fact I got to drive both a flappy paddle and manual GT86. I didn't expect the sales guy (19 y/o) to push me to give it some stick as soon as we left the parking lot while the car wasn't fully up to temp, quite a lot of traffic, etc.
(Luckily it's a dry weekend, otherwise I'm sure they'd totalled one already.) After getting used to the diff and brakes and finding some clear roads, I smashed it around a few bends (mr sales guy now suddenly silent and co-braking with both feet, lol) and I can say I really like the chassis. I know everybody complains about the lack of power but this car clearly stimulates the driver to retain his speed instead. The car is not slow and above 5k rpm VTEC kicks in yo. It's very easy to keep braking on the limit of ABS kicking in and the manual box has a nice precise and short throw. The flappy paddle in manual mode has a bit slow response imo. I didn't drive it in full auto mode but apparently in auto it's supposed to be quicker than the stick shift model, even with it being 40ish kg heavier? I don't know which one I'd buy but I do know I want one as dd in the future. It's really a lot of fun to drive!
Some pics:
^ 1978 facelift model Ralt RT1, Jan Lammers won the 1978 European F3 championship in this car competing for Toyota Team Holland.
^ 1986 Safari Rally Kenya winning Celica TA64 or Twincam Turbo (TCT, Waldegård/Gallagher)
Check out the other pics @
http://turbocelica.nl/sportheritagetour.htm. I didn't take any pics of the Supra or GT86s because not race car.
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René - Carlos Sainz 2433•5000
Turbocelica.nl |
ST185 CS restoration and full rebuildIf it ain't broken.. it soon will be
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