In our new bit in automotive history, I wanted to remind a few people out there that before people were crazy about drift and time attack events, there was another automotive form of racing that’s still popular today – Drag racing. Back in the 90’s, it was all about tube chassis Honda Civics running on wheelie bars using H22’s from Preludes. But there was one car that set the bar for all things FWD, The HKS Drag Celica.

Pic by SuperStreet Mag

In February 1999, the drag racing world came to a stop when Japanese tuner HKS announced that they had finally broken the 9 second barrier in their unibody FWD Toyota Celica (ST202). Back then, this was no easy feat. The Celica even did this using a 2.0L 3SGTE motor found in the AWD versions of the car, also known as the GT-Four (All-Trac for you ‘Mericans). The motor was of course turbocharged and extremely modified using forged pistons and an HKS GT3240 running at 24lbs of sweet, unadulterated boost to bring the power to an astonishing 560HP. Not too shabby.

If you look closely, you'll see a MaydayGarage sticker on the intake pipe. JK

Of course, it wasn’t long before the guys on the west coast figured out the secret formula to making a FWD car break the 9 second barrier, and the rest is as they say, history. Check out this video of Dai (Mr. Option Magazine himself) trying his hand at the Celica in this Option Video snippet. Love his AirMax’s!

Serious bitnit.

–David–
David@maydaygarage.com