2002 Toyota Celica GT-S - Onward Christian Soldier

Toyota Racing Development Celica Rear View

At first sight this brilliant, wheeled work looks like some kind of post-modernist kinetic sculpture you would find at the MoMA. From the deep, flawless luster of the paint layered over the carbon fiber bodywork to the complex artistic geometry of the chassis contained within, it should be enshrined in some sort of closely guarded, temperature-controlled gallery surrounded by an elegant network of stanchions and black velvet ropes. And people in black turtlenecks and matching berets should be making insightful comments about how this piece symbolizes our struggle for individualism in a society overrun with complacent conformity. All the while, the artist will be standing proudly next to his creation citing irony as his primary inspiration. But this is not your ordinary object d'art. Instead it is a very serious vehicle and its creator is not a Warhol wannabe but a man with a very serious intent and purpose.

Christian Rado and his World Electronics team are the artists responsible for this 2002 Celica GT-S. But Rado doesn't really care about the time, effort, and considerable resources that have been invested into the Celica. He has no intentions of displaying the car for it is but a tool, the main weapon in Rado's formidable arsenal allowing him to wage his war against time-more precisely the amount of time it takes to cover one quarter of a mile from a standing start. The only things that matter to Rado are his goals, which include a 200mph trap speed. This would place him in the low 7-second range. These are lofty goals for a four-cylinder FWD but the Celica looks like it has the right mojo to make it happen for Rado.

250 HP From Each Slug
One thousand horsepower. That's an intimidating number. It's even more frightening when you consider that this car generates that number from only four cylinders. Rado knew exactly where to find a tuner capable of creating this kind of power-Toyota Racing Development. TRD is responsible for all of Toyota's factory motorsports efforts here in the U.S. and Rado has nothing but good things to say about the partnership.

"Between Larry Slutter and Sheldon Andry at TRD there is just a continuous improvement process in the engines to make more horsepower with increased reliability," said Christian. "At every race TRD has been able to supply us with two or three race engines just in case the unexpected happens. But we haven't been able to hurt any of these engines yet."

When Christian refers to "these engines" he is not talking about the Celica's factory 1.8L 2ZZ-GE inline four. "Originally we were using the Celica 2ZZ engine, which TRD was building for us. Well, after seeing the direction the whole front drive scene was going we knew we wanted to go 7s at almost 200 mph, that's our goal-along with winning championships. So we asked TRD if they would build us a 3RZ-FE engine (from the Tacoma) instead. Obvious reasons include the fact that the 3RZ has nearly one liter of displacement on the 2ZZ and it also has a steel block compared to aluminum block found on the latter. We felt that we could make at least 200 more horsepower along with gobs of torque. The 2ZZ equals 1.8L and the 3RZ equals 2.7L-do the math. The 2ZZ is more of a high-tech lightweight powerplant and I'm sure TRD could have easily made 700-800 horsepower from it but it's not the super nasty truck motor we have in the car now. This engine is awesome. Even the early version of our race engine that we have now is making over a thousand horsepower and 800 lb-ft of torque at only 27 pounds of boost-now that's power. And [TRD] hasn't even scratched the surface yet. What's great is that the 3RZ engine is the perfect powerplant for any serious compact drag racer. It's strong and it makes tons of power-kind of like a four-cylinder version of the Supra's 2JZ inline six-cylinder. I wouldn't be surprised to see some new rear drive cars sporting this powerplant soon."