These Toyota Sport Cars are TOTAL Hidden Gems From a Different Era

I'm a proud owner of both of these beauties. I'm so glad somebody was able to loan these over for this video. Amazing job explaining!

He's in Toyota Heaven, those smiles I wish all mechanics was as genuine and caring as this gentle men.

Both of these cars are super rare and also very collectable. I know the MR2 gets most of the attention but actually the turbo All-trac Celica was much more rare when these cars were made. I remember going to a Toyota dealership back during these times and the lot had several MR2's to pick from inventory. But when i looked at the Celica's there was ONLY ONE turbo All-trac and it was all white with matching white alloyed wheels. I still see MR2's on the road today from this vintage but i NEVER see a Celica turbo All-trac ever. The last time i saw one in person was probably 2003. Awesome to see these cars presented here today.

Glad I found someone whom I can trust to work on the MR2..I waited YEARS because I was afraid of just letting anyone work on it. It was a pleasant surprise to see the turbo all-trac there. Great video, AMD! Thank you for your patience with it, take as much time as you need, appreciate it!

Love when mr2’s get attention. Underrated for sure.

I have both of these: A 1991 MR2 with 2GR engine swap and a 1992 Celica GT-Four with Caldina 3S-GTE engine swap almost complete. They are amazing drivers and never fail to get attention. Thank you for highlighting these superb cars.

Years ago I used to service a heart surgeon's MR-2, exactly like the one here. I loved that car. Beautiful little mid-engine car. Maybe that is even it. Who knows.

Here in Australia the All-Trac is known as the GT4, I owned one as my daily driver for 9 years, great memories. I’d like to point out that those wheels are special, to start with 15” because that was the size of most Rally Tyres, but the little known feature is that the rims are left and right side rims (my spare was a right hand rim). The spokes are aerofoils just like an aircraft wing to produce an area of low pressure on the outside to draw air over the brakes for cooling; most rally cars didn’t run these rims so not sure how effective it really was.

"This is not your Corolla with 2 doors, this is the one to get". Shots fired at Scotty.

AMD, You are like a kid in a candy store with these two high performance cars from Toyota's golden era. 😉 Despite their sporting character, it is very instructive that neither of these cars came burdened with the heavy, oversized wheels we see on almost everything these days. Happy Thanksgiving AMD, Team TCCN and Subscribers. 😁

Wow these are true collectors cars. I am an mr2 enthusiast and have been searching for an alltrac for 20 years. The alltrac is my ultimate toyota to own. Loved this video.

Hi from Australia, I Own a 1989 Toyota Celica (ST184) It has the unkillable 5SFE. These cars are hidden gems no matter what Trim or Drivetrain. Would love to see more classic Toyotas on your channel.

i just happened to plug in an OBD2 bluetooth module to my tundra and watched what some of the readings were while the engine was running. i was stunned to see the A/F ratio not jumping all over the place, it was super steady. factory wideband FTW! in regards to the build quality of the celica you showed... even my old 96 corolla had some similar front suspension setup and parts to that, so toyota definitely liked to overbuild things for a long time. Im almost having a hard time believing that any new car will ever last as long as the 90s and 2000s cars.

Besides the distributor, the main limiting factors of the 3S-GTE in the '90 - '93 MR2 were the flap-style airflow meter and the intercooler ducting. Converting to a top-ducted intercooler eliminates most of the intake ducting, and converting to an aftermarket speed-density type ECU eliminates the airflow meter. This was standard by 1994.

I've got one that's apparently even a more hidden gem. The first generation MR 2. I always thought of it as a Japanese Lotus which is probably more true than you know since Toyota owned part of Lotus at the time it was designed And tested by Dan Gurney I had one for 27 years and the only reason I got rid of it some parts were getting hard to come by. I actually had to go to a wrecking yard in San Jose to find a solenoid for part of the smog control system They are a completely different personality from the second generation MR 2 They're like a big go kart In 27 years it never failed to put a smile on my face

What a great video! I bought a 1993 MR2 N/A in 2002, and shortly after found a 1994 turbo that was rolled and totaled with 41K. Had the engine, transmission, instrument cluster, and beefier front brakes put in. Along with the 1994 trunk lid with spoiler that had changed to a much nicer look. Added the new taillights from 1994 too. Then had it all stripped down and repainted in the original turquoise color. It is one beautiful car! No mods other than the original swap. Always been a southern car with no rust anywhere. The turbo with the mid-engine makes it a blast to drive. And, it handles like no other. Doesn’t get driven much anymore and sits in the garage. Sadly I may part with it soon, but after this video I’m not sure I want to anymore! And, yes, it is virtually impossible to work on too much outside of oil and spark plug changes. But, it has been rock solid dependable. Thank you for your best video ever!!

Had a 1990 Celica All- trac. What a car it was. Comfortable, very capable and super reliable if you don’t mess with it. Felt like Carlos Sainz every time I drove it. Miss my gtfour so bad.

Over 20 years ago I had a 91 Celica GT coupe 5 speed and two 91 non-turbo MR2s of which one was a very rare hardtop model. 5SFE was not powerful or anything special but it was reliable and so well made. The Celica reached 200K mikes on the factory installed alternator and steering pump. Both cars had a recall on the A/C expansion valve but my dealer botched the job on the Celica to a point it leaked out enough refrigerant oil in the evaporator box to destroy the compressor. The MR2 had a recall with the steering wheel not meeting some DOT standard. The dealer installed a new leather steering wheel on it. Other than that, they just kept running without any issues. From around 1998-2002 you could buy a non-turbo MR2 in good shape for $6-8K. The turbos were $10-14K for the earlier models. The 94-95 were more like $8-10K and $18K to 25K, respectively, for the best of the best. They are all rare finds now. ALLTracs were rare even then. I knew someone who bought a basket case version for $5K but the nice ones were around $20K then. Labor hours to install a clutch were something crazy like 18 hours or so. I helped him with the job and it was not fun.

Great shop you care about your customers and the vehicles you work on. Excellent information about vehicles I knew nothing about, we have owned Toyotas sent the early 70’s and currently own three today. Take care and have a happy Thanksgiving.

I had a Celica GT4 (ST205 - the last one) and a Turbo MR2 (SW20) here in Australia. Wonderful cars. Anything with the 3S-GTE is highly tuneable, but they were great out of the box. The 5-speed gearbox was notorious for weak synchros and 2nd gear would usually go first (I think).