Street Sighting ~ Toyota Celica

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I was on route to drop the girlfriends Toyota Rav4 at her mechanic (near where I work). Leaving her neighborhood I spotted the Celica sitting street side, warming up.

This lovely all original, very mint, survivor Celica is known to me. It belongs to my girlfriends neighbour; Peter - or really his wife. 


Walking around and annoying people is one of my past times, so when they have a cool car and a story to tell I'm all ears. The story of Peters wife's Celica is very Australian. Bought new, it was to be the smaller, reliable, run-about second car. And she fell in love with it. Eventually Peter would follow and they chose to hold onto it at every opportunity to upgrade. The second small car story is a classic Aussie dynamic that has led to many cars surviving in Adelaide. In fact only recently I was chatting to an older lady still getting around in her seventies Celica.

Seen on my way to Bite Mi to get a Bahn Mi.
 

Her story was very similar. Bought the car new, loved it. Why would you want to own anything else? And like Peter she only really uses the thing to get to the shops. 

 

Seen on my way to Ba-Mi to get a Bahn Mi.
 

That being the case, a wash every now and then would certainly go a long way. And I do fear for car park incidents. But putting that out of mind the look of these cars is timeless. Sure they might have been four cylinders, but in the current climate they stand out as a hot coupe from an era we can't go back to. A Japanese pony car. And as a result, they're definitely very collectable. About a year ago walking back from getting a Bahn Mi (I was getting Vietnamese for lunch when I spotted every one of these Celica's) I came across a nice red example.

 

Seen on my way back from Frewville Bakery after getting a Bahn Mi.
 

While it was resting in the shade on a hot summers day it still managed to catch my eye.

 

 

I was peering inside, taking some snaps when the owner wandered over and gave me the run down. He'd been looking for a long time, so when the right one finally came up, he was onto it quick-smart. A nice Momo wheel and some jellybean mags were all it needed to complete his perfect Sunday drive. As for Peter, all original is the go.

I'm not sure what Peter listens to if not the engine, but if I had to guess it's probably AM radio.


 


Adelaide based. No real consistency just yarns, plain and simple.

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