A little while ago I wrote an article about the Honda S2000, and the friend that just happened to turn up in it and gave me a spin (quite a long one actually!). Well, Bill turned up again the other day with another toy for me to play with - the new Toyota Celica. The version he had was the top of the range Celica, the ZR with the VVTLi engine. The car is radically different to the chisel like ST205 version of the Celica that this one replaces - a more radical looking car with aggressive front end styling, with triangular type headlights and a large bonnet scoop 'sculpted' into the bonnet, and this is for the non-turbo (or non GT4) version. In fact, there is no longer a GT4 version available, not in Australia at least!

Well, right about now you may be asking "what in the world is 'VVTLi'?". Well, the Toyota people tell us that it is for "Variable Valve Timing and Intelligent Valve Timing with Lift". What does this mean? They tell us that this will give the Celica engine continual variations in induction valve timing, giving ideal driving characteristics in all conditions. But how does that contribute to actually driving the car?

The long Celica line has, during the '90's seemed to be the decade of styling experimentation. To my mind each of them has looked to be a shocker - the ST185 was horrible to my eyes at first - but I will stop and watch them drive by anytime now - I reckon they are a typical early '90's two door car now. They still look good - or should that be they now look good! The ST205 was better, but they are now a classic late '90's shape to me also! This car looks ok - and I guess it will grow on me as well. Aggressive, and obviously screaming 'speed', this car will, and does, turn heads. People really want to know what it is.

And what it is a nice cruisy car to drive. The action is controlled through a beautiful six speed manual transmission, although the spacing of a couple of the gears is a drama - second to third for example is too long - the engine really starts to get going above around 5500rpm and the tacho drops below this quite easily going into third gear. I think that the car would, however, be a kilometre eater on the open road. It would be excellent also for the motorkhana scene - it handles corners as though they are built for the Celica, not the other way around. The suspension is not at all harsh, however it is firm enough to get the car around the corners with minimal body roll and less effort. I personally think that the car screams the wrong message. It says to me 'I'm going to get there quick' when it should say 'we are getting there reasonably quickly, but easily and in style!'

Style? The exterior may be radical but the interior is certainly more so! Small vents are mounted either side of the middle of the dash which is made up basically of two large curves. And the gear lever in the console is small and the throw is similar to the Honda's gearbox feel, throw etc. Short, firm and great fun! The pedals have metal plates on them, similar to racing pedals (feels like fun!) and the gauges are clear and concise - digital in some cases.

But overall the Celica is a nice car to drive, and a good fun one at that, but not the fireball that Toyota would have us believe. The numbers say that the car is a 1.8-litre, and the engine is a good one, but a cruiser to my mind rather than a flyer. If you have to get a car with some really good open road potential and pose value on the strip, then you could do a lot worse. You'll have fun!