By Marcal Eilenstein
What have we here?
On my daily commute to the office, I sometimes take a bus route that has me walking the last half mile to my office from the bus stop. Last week, while cutting through the parking lot of an office park, I spied this little number sitting by its lonesome near the street.
This appears to be a 1976 Celica. I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t know much about these cars, but this is clearly a good example of a first generation Celica. I can also tell you it has an automatic transmission, and the interior is all original.
This is clearly a survivor, and needs a little body work. The quarter window on the driver’s side has gone missing, replaced by cardboard and the handyman’s secret weapon, duct tape.
Again, the back end looks a little awkward with the huge bumper (so does the front end, really), but overall I really like the look of this car. It’s small without looking like a compact, but not so small that it can’t wear the long hood/short trunk proportions well. What do you think of this little car?
(Oh, and the ducks? They live here. Behind them in the first image is a building, which actually sits over a small lake, as does the adjacent seafood restaurant. Yes, these birds are fat and happy.)
Jeff Glucker
The northwest is so kind to older imports. The few of those that were sold in the heartland turned to a pile of orange years ago.
I had a 1977 fastback. I wish I still had that car. It would get a fresh 3.4 V6 with TRD supercharger.
Why stop there? A Tacoma 4.0 V6 with TRD supercharger, mated to the Tacoma's six-speed manual.
3S-GTE.
On my list of stuff to do before I die:
Find one of these, either notch- or hatchback, that's got just enough body damage that I don't feel bad about turning it into a rally car. If a hatchback, hopefully it's got louvers.
At this age, would anyone in the federal widget factory care if you swapped in the Japanese-spec blade bumpers? It's the equivalent of an automotive butt-lift.
Depends where you live and what inspections you have to get, I guess. I'd think most places would be just fine, California may or may not be an issue. I know they do emissions back to 74 or 75, but I don't know if they would care about a bumper.
California wouldn't even notice, as long as it met smog requirements. Because, you know. . . more important to protect the earth than people or their cars , and the sooner this old car gets totaled, the sooner it's off the road.
I had a '75 as my first car. It was strangled by California emissions, but I love it all the same.
I always thought these Celicas looked like little first gen Camaros.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Almost like a compact pony car.
Those US spec bumpers ruin all the nice 70' Japanese cars. I makes them look like dogem cars!
1977 Fastback was the first car I learned to drive. Being 15 years old in that thing, there were so many antics I should have been dead.
So, where do we fall on the pronunciation? Cell-a-ka, or sa-leeka?