Future Celi driver!

Ill be driven in about a year and am starting to research a car. Celicas are my first choice. At first i was intrested in the new 7th gen celi's but after more research i'm more interested in 5th gen all-tracs. There just so cool. They offer more of the performance im lookin for. But damn there so hard to find in the Texas area. Hopefully i can buy one cheap so i can fix it up. Not much, im not big on heavy mods. Just new wheels and a few engine parts, mainly try to clean up the engine bay. I know im an amature but i know more bout cars than any 1 my age(believe me). So any of you that own an all-trac gimme some advice on what to look for? Comments would be appreciated!

get a Mustang.

you could get a 7th gen and do a all-trac conversion...anything's possible with the right amount of money.

get one like mine. 3rd gen i believe. RWD. 2.4L DOHC. very workable under the hood.

If Cr-f1 is coming to a Celica site he is unlikely to want a Mustang now is he.
Cr-f1 says that he is hoping to pick a cheap example up, which would suggest that he is not going to have anywhere near the necessary funds to buy a 7th Gen' and mod it.
3rd Gen are ok but lets be honest if we are going to suggest cars then a 4th Gen is better.
You should be able to pick a 4th Gen up for a reasonable price. All the parts are still easy to get hold of, and aftermarket performance parts as well (which can prove difficult for a 3rd Gen). Even though the 3rd Gen had a bigger engine, the 2L 4th Gen was a more refined engine, and when raced side by side on the track you will find that it is the best maintained engine that wins. And the 4th Gen was the first of the Celicas to come with excellent road handling abilities. Prior to this they were just average.

Please don't interpret this as some kind of attack on 3rd Gen's, it isn't. They are good cars in their own right.

well, daisrocks, i appreciate the fact that you give researched reason as to why you would prefer a 4th gen over a 3rd gen. a lot better than "3rd gen sucks, go 4th or up". now you may be correct in the fact that 4th and up have better aftermarket, but my 3rd gen has room under the hood, balls of steel for power, and personally i prefer rear wheel drive. because frankly i couldnt give a rats ass about my safety. my only complaint about 3rd gen is the boxy corners. makes it damn near impossible to get a body kit. but in its defense, the room under the hood makes it excellent for an engine swap with say, a supra. (which i plan on doing) supras were always rear wheel, i believe, making it extremely costly to try and put one of their hearts into a celica.

I would be very interested to hear how the supra transplant goes, it sounds like an interesting project.
Ok so rear wheel drive gives you a faster take off in a straight line and front wheel drive gives you better cornering. I don’t prefer front wheel drive because it is safer, I prefer it because all the roads I drive on have corners in them. You will notice that most people slow down excessively for corners (because sliding the rear end out will normally take you into oncoming traffic), but I have stiffened and lowered suspension with slightly wider wheels and like to take the corners just as fast as I can. I prefer the roller coaster ride rather than the space shuttle take-off ride.
Sure you could get a four wheel drive turbo but that always seemed such a waist to me. Turbo’s are meant to make you go faster than average, not to make you as fast as average because you have 4 wheel drive slowing you down. If I owned one I would get the gear box modded so that all the drive went to the front or rear wheels, which ever you prefer.

And there’s room to work on the engine in the 4th Gen, I’ve had the engine stripped down twice now, ok maybe not as roomy as the 3rd Gen. But hey, who needs flesh on their knuckles, skin is for whimps!

P.S. I live in the mountains and if you can’t hold it round the corners it AIN’T funny. You don’t go into a hedge, you get airborne.

well, i also live on some curvy a$$ roads. down here in arkansas (not from here originally, moved here two years ago) and i live on country backroads on the way out to a big ol lake. people think you need to do 45 tops around the corners. I have no problem taking those corners at 80. my back end might slide out a little, but because my car is so beautifully balanced (thank you toyota) i can completely control any kind of slide.