Quite fancy one and may have a buyer for my puma so considering one of them.

UK spec can be insured by my current insurer but they dont do jap imports unfortunatly so the slightly higer bhp models are out

saying that is still get it chipped etc, i hear that 280bhp is easily acheivable - but what is required to get that power level?

what are they like to live with, i do about 20 miles a day to work and back, and if they do circa 30mpg id be happy (obviously not flat out lol)

also the WRC models come with an antilag valve and water injection, but they are not connected up. is it much hasstle to get these working??

i know a little about the fugure 8 things wearing out etc and ive just signed up to the GT4OC but not looked on there much yet.

any info etc would be appreciated

 

Nice cars. i owned a st185 and mate had the 205 at the same time. Nice car but a little heavy. Usual exhaust/filter boost controller and a good set up will get the power up easy.

Fig 8's are in the front suspension. when they wear there about 100 or so quid each to replace.

Good cars and cheap to insure.

 

Always wondered what the WRC models are like?

 

i have just bought an st 185

 

yeah i read they are expensive to replace. cheers mate


seems that they have an anti lag valve fitted but its got a spotweld on it so it doesnt work. dont know if this can be reversed lol
they also have water injection but its not plumbed in
and a spray bar on the front - although i thought they were charge cooled, not IC..?

as said, insurance is £10 cheaper than my puma! got sent some pics of a uk spec one thats just had recent cam belt and clutch, but it has the ABS light on and the guy doesnt know if its just a sensor or what,and it need the front drop links replacing. got him down from 3k to £2250 if i can get it next weekend. the wheels on it are gash tho, but i think he said he has the original 3 spoke jobbies... oh and its red, id have prefered black or white lol
hmm

 

i like the 185, but prefer the 205

 

my dad owned a 205 but really wanted the 185 i prefer its looks but still like the 205

anyway heres mine

 

looks clean that mate, what sort of price was it, and is it std power wise?

 

I quite like these. I know fuck all about them, so I'm no use here, but I like them

From the good old Group A days of rallying in the 90s, so they're cool in my eyes

 

thanks mate paid £1650 for it, has 85000 miles and was imported in 1998

its standard apart form dump valve and turbo timer.

interior is nice and clean and bodywork is excellent for the age, well pleased with it.

 

Sounds a good price, suprised cheaper to insure than a puma.

Used to work with a guy who had a WRC in white on OZ racing magnesiums, looked the part.

 

haha yeah mate i llike that sort of thing myself!

 

Yeah I love all that stuff, Sierra and Escort Cosworths, Celica GT-4s, Imprezas, Legacy's, Delta Integrale's. A time when a pretty normal guy could go into a showroom, buy one of these cars and feel like Colin McRae/Carlos Sainz/Malcolm Wilson every time they drove to work, if only those days would come back!

 

yes mate proper drivers cars! new cars now have no style, well most of them anyway! would love a Delta Integrale but have you seen the price of them!
alot of things i miss from the 90's

 

Cant beat the old cars. Im not a fan of these toyotas tbh.

 

my old 185. miss it. sold it when i got me house.

 

looks tidy mate!

 

The ST205's arent bad at all. A friend had one years ago, back around 1998 or so. Nightmare to work on though. But that's Toyotas in general.

They are a huge step up from the rubbish 185's. They eat head gaskets worse than a K-series ! Must be one of the worst engines around.

Parts for the ST205 werent even that dear from the dealer. My friends was a JDM, but he bought UK clocks, and rear number plate surround, spoiler raiser blocks and some other stuff. Really wasnt expensive at all for genuine Toyota parts.
JDM has a stupid multilink front suspension though which can give problems. Dont think the UK car had it though.

His certainly wasnt that bad on fuel either. I slapped a T34 and bodged some fuelling and timing adjustments and it made 340bhp, which wasnt bad. Felt very quick at the time, and it gripped really well.
The factory ceramic based turbo is very fragile and wont handle a lot of boost before the turbine wheel falls apart though. Nobody had any real options for them back then, hence I stuck a T34 on it lol

 

since when were the st 185's rubbish? they are basicly the same engine as the st 205 and im told that the 3sgte engine is quite reliable and easily tuned!

your the first person to tell me they are rubbish

 

oh i also see your from antrim well its funny that momentum motorsport have done quite a few big bhp 3sgte engines on the st 185 and mr2 turbo

 

The 185's are a bit bland and not particularly nice looking imo, especially when compared with the 205's......fudge, billy has had one for bloody years ain't he so speak to him or vickers about them!
I know he barely ever drives it and phil always comments how he can get in it, charge the battery up and it will fire up first turn without fail no matter how long it's been stood, from what i can gather really reliable motor and his runs 280 odd at a bar of boost.

 

Cheap car for the money.

I think the WRC spec you mention is the RC edition isn't it ? I knew someone who had a red one.

For any info I'd ring Fensport as they can advise you on what to look out for.

 

LOL is about the only response to such a nonsense comment.

And the 185 engine is totally different even if it may be considered the same. Have you ever had either of them apart ? I guess not.

185's no matter what vehicle they are fitted to are rubbish !! And even the ST205 has it's problems, although perfectly ok in standard form.
The 185 isnt even reliable in standard form, just like a K-series Rover.

Look at pretty much any big event where they run. They usually spill all their coolant all over the track, at every event whether due to head gasket issues or split liners.

There is maybe only a small handful that could be considered reliable at big power levels, and they require extensive block work, or specialist blocks.

 

rc was the 185 version i think mate!

 

whats so funny about that! momentum seem to think they are a good engine otherwise they wouldnt be tuning them. i sold my shittly not reliable would hardy ever start rs turbo and bought the 185 which starts on the button every morning with no problems, to compare it to a rover is laughable.

i like them and think they are a good car

 

It was the same as the grey one pictured above, was red with white alloys, had a few other bits as well but not sure if they were standard parts.

Is the 185 the square Celica ?

 

perhaps your thinking of the 165 gt4 mate

the 185 is same as mine in the first pics on this thread

but according to some its a bag of shite

 

Thats the one, it was one of the first of that shape iirc.

I don't know anything about them except Fensports one is mentally fast

 

Haven't owned an ST205 but have had a tuned up a 3S-GTE engine in a mk1 mr2, for 280bhp your looking at, full 3" exhaust system,15-16psi boost, the standard st205 chargecooler is good for that power(wrc one is slightly better) and something for the ecu

(you will have the rev3 engine which has the best turbo and management, rev3 mr2's were putting out 300bhp with above mods, mines was a rev 2 engine putting out 280)

 

Head gaskets were a problem on the 185 but only because Toyota didn't fit a steel head gasket. Once that is swapped they handle power quite well as long as you don't go daft.

To say they are unreliable is just daft. Mine had nearly 140K on it and was great. Started first time and i never had a problem with it. Pulled strong and was fun to drive.

The st205 was a better car but both are reliable if looked after.


Also the K series was a good lump. a decent head gasket and dowels and they produced good power for a tiny/light engine hence Caterham using them in there factory cars.

 

jap cars are very reliable, their downfall is their love of rusting badly with paper thin panels that you can almost see through when wet. i never liked these more modern celicas. i wasted many many thousands on older versions though.
imagine the joy of a jap car body with the reliability of a cosworth? the best of both worlds for my old conversion.

 

the st205 wrc was awesome my old friend used to have 1, think they had issues with bushes or somthing going and were expensive to replace..

the wrc i was led to believe was a jap only model....?

http://www.gt4oc.net/forums/knowledge/kb_show.php?id=9

 

Ive owned one, sold it about 6 months ago. Really nice cars, very comfortable I thought. If your over 6'2" then its not the car for you, I had to have the drivers seat as far back as possible.

Fuel wise, I once filled it up with V-Power when I first got it, cost £80 to fill and I got around 280miles out of a tank.

Look at all the geometry not just the figure 8's. Figure 8's are one of the least expensive parts, you wont be happy when you forking out circa £300 for lower arms from Camskill.
Make sure the fuel tank isnt leaking, its right at the back behind the bumper and the rear wheels trap water between the chassis and the tank. It rots away the fuel pump cradle. Cost me around £200 in parts alone from Toyota.

Thats another thing, Toyota, they can be pricey on parts.

The 3S-GTE is a weapon of an engine. You can thrash it all day long and it never gets tired. Mine had around 100k on the clocks when I sold it.

Alot of fun, and in my opinion, alot more refined then say an Impreza of the same age. People used to always comment on it in carparks saying how it reminded them of the rally car from the Escos era.

My one was white, so if you get one, but please do not get all the Castrol vinyl!

And you right, the WRC models do have anti-lag and water injection not connected. I asked the same question when i got mine, and the feedback is that its not the greatest system. WRC models generally go for abit more money.

 

I really like both the st185 and the st205 gt4's

Stevie seems to have some bad luck with the 185's, if the cooling system is in good order they've always been reliable going by the ones peoples I know have had, even with the power increased, and like mentioned above, steel gaskets are available now anyway.

Valve safe engines too, which is unusual for a 16v and means you dont have to worry as much about cambelt history as on some other cars.

 

That's just gagging for castrol graphics

 

i did quite a bit of research on these a few years back when i had a lexus /altezza , the 3s GTE turbo engines are quite weak for anything above above 300 ish bhp unless you start with the Caldina or Camry 2.2 block ,that wouldve been my starting point but the car sold in the meantime .In fact i still have an Xtrac Gearbox & Diff to suit an is200/Altezza on the shelf ,lol

 

Back 10+ years ago I knew a few people who owned them. Nothing but trouble. Best thing they ever did was sell them.
Even a local breaker who used to work at them and supply parts gave up and moved on. Simply not worth the hassle.

Some issues may have been resolved over that time. But you still cant ignore the fact any any big event, there will be one spewing water over the track at some stage. Whether MR2, GT4, whatever.
Around standard power or a mild upgrade they should be reliable, but they are not strong engines. And they do bust cylinder blocks as often as a Turkish Cossie block.

But as I already said, the ST205 is a vast improvement over the older car, and if you get a good one, it should be a good car, again the biggest weakness is the factory ceramic turbo. I would never ever recommend the 185 to anyone though.
And they are still a total PITA to work on.

 

Nice! love them with the big rear spoiler (like they all should of had IMO! )
Agree on the castrol vinyl, makes them look properly dated.

love 205 GT4s, they remind me of cossies to drive.. But you may or may not like the 50/50 torque split though, can be a bit understeer-y.

 

I cant think of any 20 odd year old turbo car I would recomend to someone else from a reliability point of view, lol

I'd still have a 185 happily myself though

 

toyota are rediculous for main dealer part prices.i do like the look of the 6th generation celicas like the white one above though.i could see myself having one sooon possibly.