The New ZZT231 Celica with the awesome 2zzge :)

Year: 2000
Make: Toyota
Model: Celica SX ZZT231

Future Mods:
- Tien Lowered Springs
- Get some new wheels for it (maybe even my 17" ones from the Caldina)
- Cat Back Exhaust
- Blitz Supercharger Kit Or PowerFC for NA Tune
(Knowing my luck I may get the Forced Induction Bug)


 
 

 
 

 
THE STORY SO FAR
The car has been a dream of mine, I was originally going to buy a 2000 model zzt231 in May 2010, the car that I test drove was great, lift came in perfectly and I had a ball driving it. It was suprisingly cheap too, on further inspection with Vicroads the vehicle was a Repairable Writeoff and mentioned there was substantial structural damage and repairs done. For a car that looked this straight it was very discerning to know that work had been done but no proof of it, nor did the owner know about it being a repairable writeoff. I decided to let it go and ended up finding a SW20 MR2 shortly after, long story short I converted to turbo and the motor went within a week, I then spent an absolute fortune having someone rebuild it and sold it off. I then bought the caldina thinking I could have the best of both worlds, turbo and a cruisy auto and that would settle me down with car purchases. Very wrong indeed.

So I went to go have a look at a car in Strathfieldaye about 1.5 weeks ago and it was love at first sight. It took 2.5 hours to get there (on a 40 degree day). I knew it was the one though, I was driving my dads Fiesta there and it was disaster after disaster, first we had a huge pebble hit the windscreen on the freeway, I thought I chipped the windscreen but after speaking with Dad it was already there (thank gosh for that). We then hit a massive pothole in the road and thought I bent or cracked one of the wheels (not the best thing when your borrowing someones car).

Update: 13th January 2012
Car has now been picked up. Well what an awesome day we had. Apart from some "interesting" moments at the Dandenong station we made it to the train, not only were we early to Southern Cross, but there was a Red Rooster not far so Dinner was definitely on the list of things to do while we wait for the vLine.
I decided to upgrade me and a mate of mine to First Class on our voyage, I was expecting Chandeliers and waiters serving chilled wine in crystal glasses but I think my expectations were slightly overdone considering first class was only $6 each person more.
There was a kid running up and down the isles, sooo frustrating, I knew I should have got the window seat lol. Never the less we arrived at 8:35pm
Also to our misfortune, the train had a problem with the backup generator so we were not able to leave till it was resolved. Not to worry we still had time, we left at 6:35pm from southern cross and arrived at Kangaroo Flat at 8:30pm, from which we got picked up and drove to Strathfieldaye to sign the papers and pickup the ride.
Didn't help that we came upto a situation that required us to do a U-Turn and initiate the dreaded Reverse gear haha. We actually had to stop half way on the road, grab the manual out and have a look how to do it. I'm glad there is a buzzer to tell me when i'm in reverse or i'd be crapping myself (as reverse and first gear require nearly the same motion to engage).
On our way back we were told to go towards a road called Sedwick road, which could save us 20-25 mins on our journey so we decided to take it.......
We ended up getting lost 30-40 minutes later in Harcourt which was in the wrong direction, so I believe we had actually gone further away than when we first started. Not to worry good old Garmin GPS out, it told us the whole way back to Melbourne.
On the way back I had a photo taken of me :)
We left Dandenong station on the bus (towards dandy station) at 4:05pm and we returned back in Melbourne at 12 haha
Strangely though as the clock was wrong in the car, I thought it was 11:00 when we returned, it ended up being 12am.

"waits till he gets sick of Front-wheel-drive"

Well I was just in Melb over new years, staying in Glen Waverley and yep was like almost 40 deg on the burn up to Canberra on the Hume :P
 
Nice Celica though, its always fun revving the **** out of them, I should convince the gf to get one of these too! :D 

09-02-2012
Well they are finally on yay:
I like the colour personally. they look great.
Apart from the 4wd style ride height i'm very happy. (hoping to resolve it over the weekend haha)

13-02-2012
I love tinting, its a very hard thing to master and if the window isn't clean or if there is any dust it will show up in the tint.
 
The edge of the tint around the window needs to be cut with a new blade as it can get a bit blunt quite easily after a few window tints.
Here I am at a mates place as we prepare to lower the "Highlica" lol. The wheel arches had so much room above the wheel that I could easily store my gum boots on those not so muddy days :(


Here we have a multitude of trims and carpets that have to be removed to gain access to the rear struts. Whats interesting about this car is that the struts tops are actually the same level as the boot floor, and the shock strut itself is actually on the inside of floor wheel well and not in the wheel arch as per other Celica models in the past.

Here is my race spec interior.... Its amazing how much space there is once all the trims and spare wheel is removed. You can see the strut top on the right hand side (in that little pocket running along the rear support rail).


My car thought it was no better time than now to lift up a leg and urinate on my Workshop floor. I wasn't impressed... My wheel was put under just for a bit of extra safety (now that I think of it I should have used my stockie instead).

 
This was after the spring was all changed over. I am very glad to have the job complete. It was a headache and a half, The front struts took about 25 minutes each side just taking our time with winding out wheel nuts to not damage the new finish.

We were somewhat concerned about the wheel balance weight that we found on the floor lol. I can't figure out which wheel or in which position on the wheel it came from, so we decided to pretend we never saw it and to dispose of it accordingly hahaha.
Just a comparision between the stockie wheels and the new ones.

17-02-2012
 
I got my 7" dvd/gps screen in. It looks great. It sits out a bit further since its a tilt screen but its a very tight fit.
 
Eventually when i'm rolling in money from all my wonderful facebook style ideas i'll buy a fixed screen that doesn't tilt which will sit perfectly flush
 

This week I was concentrating on getting the exhaust done. I ended up gettting a cat back system which was 2.25" from the cat, it then went into a decent resonator and then into a decent muffler on the back.
 
I have not yet picked up the car but the exhaust shop said the car sounded very deep and beefy which is always good, he is used to working on bigger motors so thats always a good thing to hear.
This week I will be tackling the fun job of Vinyling a few areas of the car exterior:
 
I have the Carbon Fibre 3m Film on the way for the bonnet, I am sure some may frown away from stickers and silly fake stuff but...
- I can't afford a Carbon Fibre Bonnet and couldn't see the need to cut a few kgs on a stock car
- I see it as a homage to honour the great Fensport Celica to match as much as possible to the original look of the car haha
- I always wanted to try Vinyl Wrapping something and the bonnet looks the easiest
- I want to prevent the bonnet from getting more stone chips,i'd rather the vinyl gets cut up with rocks more than my lovely paint :)
- I'm not trying to impress anyone but myself as I always do what I enjoy :)
- We all have to admit deep inside ( lol i said deep inside) that Carbon Fibre wrap does look pretty awesome hehe
 
After this I should get my 20mm Whiteline Rear sway bar kit in the mail on Monday/Tuesday hopefully.
 
Its gone a long way since its humble beginnings as a stock celica only 1 month ago.

Very nice mate. I've used the pre-cut tint off ebay before with decent results on my MR2, but I probably wouldn't attempt it again (me being a tightarse lol). I like the carbon 3M stuff, looks pretty good.
 
My gf (and I) are probably making an offer on a 2000 ZR one of these in Raven, tomorrow, 6-speed of course!
Love the way they rev :D
 

NA revving cars have so much heart. Make for perfect daily's.