6g GT Four, Why wasn't it imported in US? Options

[Yota]

Why wasn't the 6th gen GT-Four ever imported into the United States?

[Mr_E]

Hmmm. The turbo restriction was a constructive interpretation of the rules. They broke the spirit, not the letter of the legistlation. F1 cars get away with lots more. It was worth another 50-100bhp. And WRC cars really aren't about power.

The reason they dropped the 205 in favour of the corolla was two fold. The kit car rules meant they didn't have to produce a 4wd turbo nutter corolla available for the public, and the corolla was shorter and taller, enabling better vision and yes, it's more useful on the modern tight technical stages.

Subary used to race the Legacy very sucessfully, and that's a biiiig car. The rallys changed.

The corolla, by the way, was pretty much the ST205 chassis, engine and drivetrain but in a different bodyshell.

Oh, and the engine wasn't a 3S-GTE. It was a 3S-GE BEAMs block with a custom turbocharger and head. And pistons. And pretty much everything else.....



It was a damn fine rally car. It's a shame we never saw it fully developed and racing for several seasons.

[saleeka]

Hmmm. The turbo restriction was a constructive interpretation of the rules. They broke the spirit, not the letter of the legistlation. F1 cars get away with lots more. It was worth another 50-100bhp. And WRC cars really aren't about power.

It was a damn fine rally car. It's a shame we never saw it fully developed and racing for several seasons.
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I cant say i agree that it was an interprtaion of the rules gone wrong in this senario whatsoever... For those who dont know the full story- here it is. For 1995, the FIA changed the rules with regulation turbo restrictor size, going from 38 mm to 34 mm being the maximum allowed diameter. The celica, already in a so-so position being such a large car, now was deprived of its power advantage it enjoyed in the 1994 season (where the car ran only in the later half, replacing the ST185). All three works drivers we not happy with the situation, and in turn, someone made the decision to have a cleverly concealed and highly illegal moveable restrictor fitted to the cars (nobody ever owned up to making the decision officially, but it is believed to have been Dieter Bulling's idea, TTE Chief Engineer). When this part was checked by officials, it looked exactly as the other teams, but internally, it could be adjusted without having to break the seal, which in turn restored the cars power advantage by increasing the airflow... FIA wasnt the wiser for most of the season until the Langley Park stages in Rally Austrailia, where there were side by side special stage runs with 2 cars at once. The celicas were noticeably faster then their similar output and weight competitors, which prompted an extensive investigation. 6 weeks later at the end of Rally Catalonia the FIA released their findings of the turbo air restrictor, which damningly were previously date stamped in May of 95. TTE was in turn banned from rallying for 12 months, and as a result, Bulling resigned. This pretty much sealed the coffin for the ST205, but it did continue to run in privateer hands until the corolla debuted, with the help of TTE works drivers in some cases. Also, the car was continued to be developed within the privateers, with the fitting of conventional struts to replace the fragile "superstruts", active differentials, and a narrower track, which sorted out the early car's erractic handling tendancies... neverthless the car was never a real competitior anymore mainly due to the lack of the big budget that TTE had previously provided.