1971 Toyota Celica - Jay Leno's Garage

this was the first sports car the Toyota built okay and they called it a sports car didn't I did yeah yeah welcome to another episode of Jay Leno's Garage this week we're talking about a 1971 Toyota Celica ST now I know this might seem I quite as exotic to some of the cars we do but is it's a milestone car especially for Toyota because this was their first quote kind of pony car you might say to compete with maybe Camaro and Mustang and in those cars as well I remember when these came out they seemed so advanced compared to the car they were placed they were really good value you know they were stick shift they had some horsepower we got this one from the Toyota museum down in Torrance California and it's a great museum you can go visit it if you make a reservation you can kind of see the history of Toyota especially in the United States let's meet one of the men of Toyota Paul come on in here Paul what is your title at Toyota Jay good to see you yeah I'm the brand manager for trucks suv's and twitter racing development tier D models into it okay very very cool so I was just talking about how this was this was a breakthrough model foot - yeah Toyota wasn't it it absolutely was this was the first real sporty car that Toyota entered into the marketplace with in the US and at the time if you remember it's just coming off the hype from the Mustang and really showed the industry that there was a market for sporty cars so this was Toyota's answer to the Mustang if you will and being sort of Japanese in that way it's just a little shorter a little smaller a little more compact and what was the original engine in this was it a 1.4 the original engine was a 1:9 around 100 horsepower okay well actually that's practically a 2 liter which is pretty good by Japanese standards isn't it that would be considered a big engine in Japan wouldn't it certainly would and also in Europe because this car was also sold globally not just Japan not just the US but it was also popular in European market was this the first toy to be sort of a world car I mean the world car concept I think started with the Japanese now here in America Ford Chevy we build a car and it does go around the world but we always used to build specific models for specific places this was was this one of the first war car well this was the first world sporty car the ho world car from Toyota it was either the corona or the Corolla around Sierra okay so those were the very proper and traditional saloons this of course was the sporty version it was based on a Karina platform so based on one of the saloons but again taking a page out of Ford it was a sporty ER version not unlike what they did it what Ford did in Europe with the Capri yeah I was thinking you know this is about the size of a Mercury Capri which never quite caught on here in the United States I was sold through Mercury dealers mercury dealers were one cut above for dealers and one cut below Lincoln so maybe people thought it was too expensive but I know in England oh my god it was an iconic car had the v6 and they got real horsepower of them too as well yeah they didn't really bring in the high-performance engines into the US and I think that's part of the reason that they didn't perform as well but this vehicle really set the standard for what we call the sporty subcompact market yeah I remember I used to see these everywhere college campuses especially by the end of the 70s when they come on the used car market they were all over and then they just disappear this is first what I've seen probably seven or eight years I think and here in California tend to see a lot of stuff on the streets but an awful lot of them got hot rodded didn't they and whatnot yeah absolutely the silicate nameplate itself went through seven generations around 30 years in the u.s. in fact behind us there's another famous one driven by someone you may have heard of yes I was fortunate enough to drive in the Toyota Grand Prix of the celebrity Grand Prix I think I got beat by Angela Lansbury if I'm not mistaken but it was a lot of fun this was this was the car that I drove and I'm surprised I'm flattered they saved it all these years this is the museum in it well it isn't our museum and Jay we saved it because the you really need a driver with any skill who didn't crash every body panel yeah I didn't crash mine well you know what's fascinating what I did this Toyota has this to this day they have it okay and they bring in sort of quasi celebrities to race so I thought okay this would be fun so I'm in the race and I get right behind Dan Gurney okay I'm just going to do everything Dan Gurney does so we got a first turn he breaks I break I'm right on its bump okay it's as straight he starts to pull away a little bit okay but I'm still kind of on his bumper then he hits the next turn he hits the brake slide so I hit the brake I don't slide so I lose a little bit there then he's a little bit then I'm thinking where's Dan Gurney and I I II I see him he's in my rear view mirror now he's now past me he's lapped me it was so you know humiliating yeah but but it was certainly a lot of fun and I'm flagged yeah this is the car that I drove very cool very cool and there you know the the whole fun to drive aspect lasted for the entire 7 generations of the Celica from the first one this is a fourth generation all the way to the seventh which I was lucky enough to be the project planner for well this was the first front-wheel drive race car I ever drove and this was the first generation Celica that was first or right yeah I guess that's right now you brought you an engineer with us correct well we brought one of our old product planners I don't mean in age wise my great experience I was the seventh I was the planner on the seventh generation but I like to bring Tim Mochizuki an old friend and colleague in he was the product planner on the Timbo fourth and the third generation so he'll walk around the car nice to meet an old product planner yeah sorry I didn't mean all that way I meant dad long-standing associates so what I'll do is I'll turn it over to Tim and he can take you around the car okay well welcome to the Celica yeah as you said this is kind of a trend-setting car for Toyota actually for the Japanese market or manufacturers here in the US market I'd like to point out one thing the rear suspension cars of this error usually leaf spring hiatus this has got coil springs in the rear okay so they've been a bit conscious effort to bring a car that they felt would give a fun to drive kind of a easy easy to drive fun balance was it hard to sell too because 1970 is really so many generations ago in I mean now the world is connected by the internet we all know how each other thing was it hard to sell to the Japanese bosses the concept of this car because Japanese motoring is so different from American motoring in a sense that our highways go for hundreds of miles with no turns and you know you know I'm saying it was was it hard to convince him that it's a sporty car kind of like a Mustang would sell I believe not because they specifically picked this model out of the wide range of worldwide cars you mentioned this was a fruit of one of the first World cars picked Mont middle a line they did research figured out what would work in the American roads so to leaders I was actually a big engine for the Japanese right and this particular first generation Celica went through three engine changes and a lot of that was feedback directly from the people that bought the car they actually went to a cross-flow head for better fuel economy but more power so everything on this car was geared towards that enthusiasts it was an easy sell in Japan I remember when they first came to America in the mid-60s the Toyota automatic transmission was called the Toyo let mm hm and so you could get a Toyota with toillete transmissions and of course Americans thought it was hilarious couldn't sound like toilet in the Japanese I don't I don't get this I don't know what's going on here you know so my favorite thing is to read early Japanese manuals from the 60s that have been translated I have one from my Honda that says when meeting the giant dog in the road tooth the horn melodiously and you see the guy pull up in the car is this big and the dog is enormous the dog is like two stories high and I go what what dog is that big it's like a giant bear and I don't when you see the guy go and then the dog turns and walks away in the illustration I just enjoyed collecting those things that's nothing to do what we're talking about it just seems like a lot of fun now this has a 4-speed when did they go to five-speed it's actually the year after this thing okay and listen to the people that bought the car they went to a five-speed it also improved on gas mileage so this car continuously evolved and became all the way through the seventh generation a very sought-after vehicle now was the 5-speed not necessary Japan because twisty roads not so many super highways so the idea of putting it in fifth gear and driving it down to 2200 rpm and lugging along and didn't it didn't exist that right was Toyota the first manufacturer to sell fully loaded cars I mean in America the big thing was the base price was $2,500 Mara air-conditioning yeah every little thing added up whereas remember Japanese cars would come in and they would have standard air-conditioning what seemed incredible to most Americans and late sixties early seventies as with everything else with taught it's always been about giving the customer value yeah the very first Lexus's that sold sold very well because you've got a car that had the quality and the outfit of a very expensive luxury car but at a very low price so same thing with the Celica they offered you more than what you expect you to get more bang for the buck now this seems like an American affect ation these aren't functional at all correct that is very much so it is a styling cue that worked and sold in the US can we open the hood and see with the engine low sure pretty good size engine yes it is it's a 2 liter engine for all practical purposes 1900 CC cast-iron block cast-iron block block actually became a racing engine at one point with 16 valves and full Hemi heads so it's a very strong block and here's why we love these cars in California look everything is accessible right here distributor right here fuel pump oil filters right here this might have seemed complicated back in the 70s but look how simple it looks now I mean you can actually get in and work on the vehicle Twitter's always prided itself in a lot of placement of things that it's easy for the customer to get to right so our interior economics carried through to the engine bay and everything else you know it's so funny when you look at the early manuals like when you pick up a Ford Model T manual it tells you how to adjust the valve if you lose a rod out of place of bearing I mean that's all the owners manual now you get a noise value it just says do not drink contents of battery ok thank you and they don't tell you how to do anything whereas this this is well this is really great you can see why these became so popular with hot rod is because they're easy to work on everything's accessible it's got a nice carburetor on it no fancy crazy fuel injected why didn't your injection first come in for this model didn't come in till later on in the late 80s so right around the time that you started racing your car yeah very nice very cool and that's a real 70s color in it oh yeah yeah that's that kind of avocado greens I could buy like whatever they want to call it and of course wheel covers nobody has wheel covers anymore everybody just does those wheels but hubcaps were were the thing it's big selling point for the car in the 70s again it went back to that value proposition right you got them for free and was this styled in Japan is this a European style understand do you remember this particular one was actually styled with Europeans and the Japanese together right so it was meant to be a world car because I remember the the Japanese would often go to giugiaro or any the Italian styling houses of the german styling houses to just to get a feel for it yes there are later models as you've seen we styled with American such as the Lexus yeah the SC coupe where the gentleman used the balloons and plaster of Paris to get those organic curves right the later Celicas really relied on American influence because it was that kind of a car for and I think China has a styling studio right here in California absolutely Kelty yeah yeah right here in Newport Beach and of course these kind of give the impression of sort of motion or wind I guess yes nicely done and you had the heated rear window it's amazing all the stuff that's standard now which was seems like such a breakthrough back in the day intermittent wipers full center console these are all things that used to have to pay extra for yeah the Celica gave them to you at the same pace and rosacea would simulate steering wheel mm-hm and you had the sort of wood grain and you had the wood shift knob right was that optional as that stance this is all standard on the silica stream okay and then you had the decals as well you know it's a nice-looking car and it still stands up styling wise today it doesn't look particularly dated to me I kind of like to look at this it's the right size of would this be the smallest Toyota built today if this was if this car was being manufactured still I mean at least in America it'd be very close to it yeah no crash bumper we didn't have any of that airbag through that but actually in the aftermarket world the bumpers on this car that small thin ones are the highly sought after yeah people are actually paying several hundred to a thousand dollars for each bumper just because they want those they don't want the big crash box yeah yeah can we can we take it for a spin absolutely we're hoping you would ask yeah all those bias plies bias plies let's do it sounds pretty sporty to drive you know it's so funny I don't I don't know with cars like this whether nostalgia plays a part in my judgement you know modern cars is so much the same now to find a unique driving experience is rather unusual and it just feels different I mean they get a little bit of Road feel through it and you got this long throw shifter and I can see why this would have been quite a revolutionary car for Toyota it's sort of like I mean it compared to most cars of the period especially 71 it really is sporty stick shift you know wood grain steering wheels not really wood right that's okay you know they learn some tricks from the Americans there absolutely and then it did cater to the enthusiasts you've got a full complement gets no idiot lights here yeah pressure Tim you've got everything that you need to make sure you're running right and we are the leaders in fake wood production here in America oh absolutely that's is that you know I love a thin a pillar you know these modern cars have the eight pillars that are so thick you drive these some of these early cars if you roll over you're dead but hey don't roll over laughter Torquay little motor and you say was a truck motor yes started off as a truck boner again they did the research and found out big America they like to go with big roads big open spaces they brought him Oh turn n more torque and actually fit the bill really well for this car so what's the car that preceded this well came right before the Celica actually it was a car called the Carina it was just a saloon had a little bit of fun to it but it wasn't a sports car this was the first sports car the Toyota built okay and they called it a sports car didn't they did yeah yeah it was really an up and comers car right basically the baby boomers right yeah yeah was air-conditioning available on this car absolutely Oh was yes but not standard not standard that's one of the few things that was an option on this car I happen to look up this particular car the transaction price back today was a four thousand dollar transaction price so it was a little pricey for the day but it was still a reasonable value yeah cuz four thousand that was still some money in 71 I mean I think the Pinto and the Maverick were in the twenty eight hundred dollar range something like that so you know it's so funny I love the thin steering wheel so Monica's have these big thick wheels on them now and again I think even the steering wheel is a departure for Toyota people because they used to use the floor spoke or the big heavy Center wheels this was flying represent a Grand Touring it's got even a little the fake holes yeah Italian GT steering wheel yeah how many of these did they sell what they sell about two hundred thousand a year something like that at the height basillica sold 160 thousand in a segment that was just over two hundred thousand so they own that segment but started off maybe three Japanese name plates in that segment by the time the segment finally went away in the industry there was almost 35 name plates in that segment okay a lot of people like to say a toy created the mold that everyone is will must follow with you yeah yeah does to oughta have an equivalent to this car today is there one the closest equivalent to the car today would be even Scion tC I wear that same kind of mold right yeah that makes sense from uh sports just a sports enthusiast segment though we also have the FRS which is the boxer engine right rear front rear-wheel drive vehicle front engine and it has what had a phenomenal following what's the thinking behind creating a new name brand like scion for example everybody knows Toyota Toyota quality and all that kind of thing suddenly Scion comes along and people not car people go what's the Scion and never heard of that it seems like you're starting all over is that harder anyways is actually easier because when you think of Toyota there's a certain level of equipment a certain level of car you expect what's what the new nameplate allowed to order to try different formulas to go back to that value proposition and then not have to put in the thousand one of the accessories that have become expected for Toyota be sure sure I guess it's like Disney and touchstone you know there you go yeah good example what was the first Toyota to come with radial tire standard actually happened just after this model I realize the next upgrade from this model the Corolla that keep the South all came with radial tires I think this is the last year we use the bias plies and what is this 100 horsepower under horsepower actually rubs pretty good yes it's actually car driver what's shortly after this vehicle was released had mentioned it's a very free revving engine the out of it very high marks is being a very sporty feeling car right right a lot of people do put emphasis on the technical more valves more horsepower bigger Pistons tonight I really like a car when they build it in this to balance the engine matches the drivetrain match suspension because then you get this feel of you can use all ten tints on the car red lines about what 6500 that's pretty good pretty good yes and again it's got the typical hallmarks of to the QDR that you could take over in line with QD on quality dependability reliability okay you know we put some together its you could use it right redline the entry you do whatever you need to enjoy the vehicle yeah I was fortunate to go to Japan and go to the factory and meet mr. Toyota it's D in Japan isn't it yes the family name was D the often with the Japanese language and the characters certain strokes for the names they count off the strokes and certain numbers are more lucky and they had made a comment of do you really wanted to have the family name oh by the way if you change it to Toyota the number of strokes it's a lucky number once the name has changed but the azure name is Toyo da correct yeah cuz I I he was very nice man he met me and he pulled out the Toyota GT that James Bond drove in the movie for me to drive oh and that was the real time answer me I saw that movie as a kid was like oh my god you know that's what got kind of got me interested in Japanese cars because then I had to have to think with the Oh like a radar thing built into the console you know there's a little golf phony but but when you're a kid you think that's pretty cool you know that's actually a very cool car to drive it's you know they're one of the first twin cam engines the okay from with front-engine rear-wheel-drive it was just a great car to drive yeah it was fascinating go to Japan and see where they built the LFA so you got to see the carbon fiber machine weaving and all char weening in it and it's it's in its own bespoke building yes they're doing some additional new work in that building and obviously we have new cars that will be coming out shortly I don't have information on it unfortunately but I am that is setting a forerunner of what we will be doing our new president Akio Toyoda very big enthusiast in motorsports and he wants to bring that sporty feel back to Toyota so that would be good yes thanks Paul for us Tim thank you very much thank you to check out that be see you next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,363,872

Rating: 4.8960762 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, toyota celica, 1971 toyota, 1971 toyota celica

Id: KqzhfjbnXg0

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2015