After putting a picture of my latest progress onto the 6gc FB page, I had a few people ask me to do a build thread for my 96 UK spec St205 drift car so here it is.

I bought my Celica in 2009, and decided to turn it into a Drift car in December 2016 after spending the last year going everywhere sideways in a v8 Nissan Stagea

First issue was the front subframe being smack in the way, so I had to notch it out and box it back in



Next thing that needed sorting was the gap to the firewall, sorted by cutting a massive hole, and planning to fill back in with new firewall further back



I decided I'd swap the super strut front end for a MacPherson strut off an st202 I'm breaking, so had to adapt the hubs of the st202 for the St205 front brakes to fit





I spent a whole weekend making engine mounts and welding them together and to the chassis, only to figure out later on that they wouldn't work very well for packaging reasons so Chopped them off and threw them in the bin, then came up with the crossbar under the front of the sump (don't worry there's a 7mm gap) and being solid mounted to the chassis







This weekend I've managed to get the steering rack mounted







And also managed to cut the tunnel out where needed to test fit the is200 gearbox to the 1uzfe mock up engine



The propshaft has also been cut to length with the is200 front spline and U/J ready to be welded up once I've felttled the joint a bit, no pictures unfortunately

Future plans are fuel cell in the rear, finish up the turbo manifolds, custom wiring harness for the entire car, tube frame front end and general Drift tweaks.

This build is awesome. That is all.

now thats an original. i support this thread

thank you for starting this thread on here. mad props to you for doing something totally different.

Great build idea. Love it

How many years have we been telling noobs about the amount of fabrication it would take to make these cars RWD?

This thread should be a sticky. Just to show the true amount of fab work needed.

Great Work OP!

Glad to see you made it over! I was one of the guys telling you to make a build thread.
Excited to see where this goes!

is this going to be a slow progress build or are you guys pumping this out for a deadline?

Wow. You have defeated many dark theories. Awesome.

So you can swap a 2jz in a celica. In theory same process.

The firewall can be cut. And notched.....

Now in future threads asking if you can swap a 1jz ill send them here...

How safe are those welds to mount the brakes. A lot people are afraid to weld cast iron

Love the build....

Nice to see something exciting and different, look forward to continued progress.

@Tigawoods it's a case of as the budget allows it will be progressed, but I don't think I'm being unrealistic for my aim of doing the first shakedown run at the last Drift day of the season this year as I already have the full engine, harness, ecu, seats, pedal box and pretty much everything I need already.

@njccmd2002 I was guided through the welding of the hubs by a guy who's been doing it for 20 years, also took a small sledge hammer to it a few times and seemed completely unscathed, but to make sure will be tested on the track with no accompanying cars and my hydro handbrake for back up

It turns out in my haste to get the prop done I've fubar'd the IS200 spline/u-j so need to pick up another one of them. Bugger.

Also hoping my e46 sells so I can get a bead roller to strengthen the propshaft tunnel panels I'll be making shortly

Small update, manifold flanges fully welded yesterday





The heim joints for the track rods arrived yesterday



And Im going to mock up and just tack weld the propshaft with the knackered u/j just to keep moving forward



Should be test fitting the seat later today, along with seeing how the pedal box is going to be mounted, will update this evening

So I managed to get my seat mounted the other night



Even with my custom base plates I couldn't get it much lower and further back than the standard seat, but a lot more support. Steering wheel location will be around the same depth into the cabin, but a bit lower as Ill be using a quick release wheel



Putting the heim joints in the steering arms in the hubs things starting to look feasible, will probably put a slight bend in the arm to stop interference with the wheel when at minimum extension each side



A tip for everyone reading, don't buy **** for your project before you need to, I have to chop my pedal box to bits to convert it to a master cylinder under the feet design to put them far enough forward to be comfortable

are you going to double sheer mount the heim joint?

Yeah, when it's at ride height that will be sorted out, as with the standard 202 front suspension it look like it's pulling a wheelie so steering rack will be lower compared to the hub mount

Why didn't you just get a Supra?

A) can't afford a tt 6 speed,
B) already had an St205 that no one would be interested in buying
C) already had the v8 and manual conversion
D) it's something new