An old Toyota Celica is a classically cool machine with a healthy cult following. What it doesn't have is an overly powerful engine bolted in from the factory. A delightfully crazy person named Jamie Heritage has decided to change that. The Aussie owner of this particular 1971 Celica has decided he wants big power. How big? How does somewhere between 1,100 and 1,150 horsepower at the flywheel sound?
Under the hood sits a 4.0-liter V-8 borrowed from a Lexus. Behind that is a sequential gearbox. The power then flows to an all-wheel-drive system plucked from Godzilla himself. This Celica is running a set of gears from an R34 GT-R and the differentials from an R33. That's what you might call a healthy setup, especially when the cars weighs less than 3,000 pounds in total.
CHECK OUT: Godzilla's biography: The history of the Nissan GT-R
This is a car that is reliably hitting over 186 mph, and the owner has dreams of the 200-mph mark. Based on the power delivery shown in the video above, the car is probably just a gearing tweak away from finding that special place on the speedo. In this video, he achieves a best run of 17.562 seconds at a speed of 165.7 mph over the 1000-meter (0.62-mile) run.
Our hats off to you, Mr. Heritage. You're the best kind of mad bloke.
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