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11-09-2005, 08:32 AM
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#1 | |
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AF Newbie
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: New Plymouth
Posts: 2
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Toyota Crown-Bah, a pox on OPEC!!
My first car (okay, roll your eyes now) was a 1972 Toyota Crown with the 4M 2.6l engine that went on to power the Celica Series. The Crown was a very well specified vehicle, for it's day, with an alloy head, crossflow design, hemi pistons, twin-barrelled carby, SOHC, 7-bearing crank, trailing-arm rear suspension with coils'n'shocks... the list goes on, and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be around to write this if she hadn't stuck to the road like, well, you know, something very sticky.
The Crown was originally designed with the Chevrolet 350cu V8 in mind - Toyota had even cut the deal with Chevy to market them in the States as an exotic sporty exec's car! The underside of the bonnet has the big blank scoop-shaped space where the Chevy's inlet manifold would have been, the engine mounts are in the right place, the 4-speed manual box's bell-housing bolts straight onto the back of a 350, and under the car are the twin, beautiful, symmetrical channels where the twin exhausts would have lived... ...and then OPEC happened. And the price of petrol at the the American pumps doubled, virtually overnight. And LO, the clever lads at Toyota realised they were never going to be able to sell a V8 Crown to the Americans, because the only reason an American would buy a Japanese car was because they were WAY better on gas than US cars, and a Crown with a US V8 was gonna drink it like a local. So, alas, Toyota fell back on the 4M engine, which was an excellent donkey (racehorse might be a better term), but hopelessly small for the task at hand. Mine was good for (don't laugh, she was trying real hard!) a languid late-17 through the 1/4... ...and a top speed of 101MPH. There was a coupe model which i hold was one of the best-looking sports cars Toyota ever built, and, (roll your eyes again if you must) One Of These Days I'm Gonna get my hands on one and fit the 4-litre quad-cam all-alloy engine from a Soarer, thus keeping it all Toyota, giving her the kind of power a 350 Chev V8 only dreams of, and finishing the car that the Toyota lads wanted to build all those years ago ... siiiiigh ... Last edited by Cab 4; 11-10-2005 at 10:09 AM. Reason: ack, the engine's a "4M", it's the CAR that was "MS65" |
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01-24-2006, 03:26 PM
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#2 | |
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AF Regular
 Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Cedar Rapids IA, San Diego CA,Glen Cove NY, Fairford UK, New York
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Re: Bah, a pox on OPEC!!
Interesting.
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It worked fine until I fixed it! 
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02-05-2006, 02:50 PM
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#3 | |
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AF Enthusiast
 Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Sartell, MN, Minnesota
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Re: Bah, a pox on OPEC!!
That would be one amazing project car.
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'93 XLE **VCV-10**A540e**3VZ-FE**  194,000 miles and rising 
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