99-mod Celica ST chassis vs GT/GT4 chassis Options

[Illyont]

Hello!

Overseas in cold Norway we have a bunch of stupid laws. One of them is:

You can never add more than 15% horsepower above stock for your model car. If you do, no more street legal.

Anyway, I was talking to them today and I got them to agree on this:

If I could get a written statement from Toyota that the chassis on a regular ST (AT200) would be able to hold x amounts of whp. They could register the car as a street vehicle. So I drove to Toyota and asked them. They didn't know....

If anyone should know, it have to be someone on this board. I know it's a pretty long shot, but I have to ask. If the chassie turn out to be totally different then OK, but if they are the same, or atleast if the ST chassie can withstand lets say. 300 whp from a tuned up 3S-GTE then wow, great.

I will probably get like 20 replies saying:

I have a 94-99 Celica ST with 3S-GTE swap and my car is doing just fine. That just doesn't cut it. I need to get the statement from Toyota, but before attacking them I need some cold hard facts first.

[presure2]

guys, its a proven fact that the gt-4 is MUCH more reinforced than the normal gt/st along the lines of 4 times the body welds if i remember correctly. the 2 chassis are VERY diffrent when it comes to the floors of the two, the gt-4 having basicly a totally diffrent floor pan, and ALOT more welding.
trying to get toyota to tell you any diffrent is gonna be a REAL P.I.T.A imo.

[darksecret]

guys, its a proven fact that the gt-4 is MUCH more reinforced than the normal gt/st along the lines of 4 times the body welds if i remember correctly. the 2 chassis are VERY diffrent when it comes to the floors of the two, the gt-4 having basicly a totally diffrent floor pan, and ALOT more welding.
trying to get toyota to tell you any diffrent is gonna be a REAL P.I.T.A imo.
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It might be that way due to rally car heritage, something like the Evo compared to the Lancer, they weld the seams to reinforce the chassis. I think the trunk pan is the only difference, if the entire floor pan was different there wouldn't be a need for the driveshaft tunnel on the 2 wheel versions. It cost too much to create two different chassis's so I feel that Toyota used the same chassis and made minor changes at the assembly line, same as the Evo. Even the old Mitsubishi Mirage and Dodge Colt were built on the same chassis as the Evo IV or V, I believe. Try calling 1-800-Go Toyota and they might be able to help with factory contacts. Since the only way to find out is seeing if they used a reference number from the factory to tell the difference in the chassis before assembly. I've stripped the underside of my car and found that there isn't much need for reinforcement there, but you might need to replace the rear floorpan and add the rear strut bar to help since the GT-Four did come with that reinforcement. The floor pan didn't make a difference in rigidity it just made enough room for the gas tank and rear axle.