merckx racer

Considering this purchase....only 40K miles...$8K selling price...
no sunroof thank goodness this car handles great...and rocks at
6Krpm's...makes quite a wail as well..you get attention quick if peeps are
outside!

Any opinions..great at speed..but from a stop anemic...anyone thinking
"gears" would address this..it's FWD don't kmow how tough that would be?

ps..this thing is light..very tossable even at speed..sure to fid
some TRD goodies to even enhance handling moreso.

Carbon Blue

They are great cars! Ive been following the 2zz since its first debut into the industry, they really are stout motors that scream once lift kicks in. Final drives are pretty hard to come by since not many companies actually manufactured them, C2 made a few sets but they are pretty costly. You are better off supercharging and switching the ecu to the apexi power fc for full tunability/reliability. You arent going to get much gains in the low end unless you force feed or build up the motor etc. Got any pics of the car itself? A basic intake/exhaust/test pipe/header/intake manifold will net you high 13's to low 14's in the 1/4 mile (assuming you land the second cam on the 1-2 and drive like hell). They are also pretty lightweight in the 2500lbs range. Visit monkeywrenchracing.com for all your 2zz needs, they are a great company.

edit:
now that I reread your title, I know a select few that have gotten the 03 gts to run on the powerfc stand alone, but I dont ever remember if they ever made the harness public. Atleast you got the 8350 fuel cut and not the 7800 that some of the other years were stuck with.

ziggy55

I also had a 03 GT-S, kept it for a little over 1 1/2 years. Great sporty coupe, interior is pretty nice and with a TRD action package the cars exterior greatly improves. It was very reliable, MPG was alright and the issue with no low end grunt is very true. Also packing 3 passengers will greatly affect the pick up speed = no TQ. VVTL-I kicked in very well just as comparable to a V-tec in RSX-S, overall price seems nice and the low miles is a plus. The celica was my first car and if I could have kept it as a DD I would have.

deepbluejh

I've owned a 2000 Celica GTS for the past 8 years. It's been extremely reliable and to this day (with 190k miles) I average 30mpg mixed driving and 33mpg on the highway with the 6-speed manual. Power is good when in lift, but the overall powerband is laughably small. Lift kicks in at 6000 and the redline is 7800 (think about that). Anyhow, as the car has aged, power has definitely dropped off. I hardly ever hit lift anymore. I basically use the car as a run-about when I need a little more space than my S2000 provides. At this point I plan on keeping the Celica stock and investing any performance upgrades into the S2000.

newyawkballa

What years had the higher redline? I believe 2002's had the lower Rpm and the others were 8200.

rockville

I think I would have a really hard time buying this vs the last gen Prelude. I never warmed to the styling (unlike the Prelude which I really like). It is a hatchback which is a very good thing in my book. It was also one of the first Toyota I drove that just didn't feel right to me (shifter and pedal wise). I've owned a number of Toyotas from the 80s and 90s. I found that Toyota had a remarkably consistent and quality feel to the shifter and pedals. It was like if you were comfortably with a Corolla you were comfortable with a Supra. This Celica seemed to break that for me.

As for the lack of torque, well that was inherent in the motor. It was a high reving motor with an intake that wasn't suited for low RPM work. Yet another reason why I liked the Prelude (or RSX) better.

starchland

friend used to have a GTS trd edition. Was a great handling car, but he spec'd it with the 4 speed auto...damn was it slow off the line lol.

my definition of a chick car is the Celica, just because so many times I pull up to one and it is a chick driving, that is all

deepbluejh

I can't speak for the other years, but the '00 had a 7800rpm redline and 8250 fuel cutoff. I would be surprised if the later years revved any higher since the engine is basically the same.

North Star

A good friend of mine had a GT-S. He eventually went to XS and got boosted and tuned. That thing ran very well and the power curve was sweet. Sounds like a good buy for $8k

aklucsarits

It's pretty rare to find them with no sunroof. It's probably under 2500 lbs in that configuration. By 2003 they had fixed the earlier years engine issues, although the fuel cut at redline is LOWER than '00 and '01 IIRC (which may have been part of the "fix").

They are great all around cars and have always been underrated IMHO. Sure they were not super fast in a straight line, but they were lightweight, handled amazingly out of the box, had usable cargo space, got great gas mileage and were generally very reliable.

Andrew