Street Machine Australia — June 2017

As owners of hot Escorts, Datsuns and, er,

MGs will attest, twin carbies sound tits when

sucking down great lungfuls of air, so Troy gave

the 40mm Solex side-draughts a refresh, along

with rings, bearings and all the normal bits and

pieces before installing the motor.

“It’s got about 70kW at the wheels, but it

only weighs 850kg,” Troy said. “It’s essentially

a standard Celica GT motor; that’s all I wanted

at this stage. I might rebuild the spare motor

into a monster N/A thing, or maybe go an old-

school draw-through turbo that will give me

endless hassles!”

How much attention the car gets is evident

by my Dictaphone recording of our chat, which

contains as much of me explaining to people that

we’re trying to do an interview as it does Troy

talking me through the car. One question that

came up repeatedly concerned, unsurprisingly,

how low the car is.

“Up front, I chopped four inches out of the struts

then welded in a coil-over kit. Down the back, I had

custom springs made by Industrial Springs just

before they closed down,” Troy said. Four inches

is plenty, and it gets the Celica way down low.

Troy also sourced a set of Toyota MR2 shocks

for the front and Koni adjustables for the rear;

the factory items were like the bump-stops –

useless. “It’s actually got a pretty good range of

movement; it drives well and is fairly comfortable.

It even gets full lock!”

Once again we were interrupted by people

overpoweringly drawn to Troy’s Celica; so

much so that it became evident the interview

would need to continue by phone later. While he

showed people around, into and under his little

nanger, it gave me time to appreciate just how

clean it is – testament to his build, but also his

high levels of presentation.

Troy said he’s pretty much achieved what he

set out to do: build a cool car on a restricted

budget. “I did pretty much all the work myself;

my dad Barry helped a lot as well. The car

doesn’t owe me a lot of money; I’m pretty

proud that I’ve got it to the point where it gets

a lot of attention and a lot of people really

like it.”

That’s a fair thing to be proud of, Troy. And

if you’ve read this far, you’ll probably agree.

Ken Oath! s

TROY BARKER

1976 TOYOTA RA23

CELICA LT

Paint: Toyota Orange 352

GRUNT

Engine: Celica GT

18R-G DOHC

Block: Standard

Carbs: Twin 40mm Solex

Head: Yamaha

Ignition: Electronic

distributor upgrade

Fuel: Classic mechanical pump

Exhaust: Pacemaker

extractors, 2in straight exhaust,

Lukey muffler

SHIFT

Trans: Celica five-speed

Clutch: ACS HD single-plate

Diff: Stock

BENEATH

Brakes: Stock (f & r)

Springs: Custom adjustable

coil-overs (f), custom

Industrial Springs (r)

Shocks: Toyota SW20

MR2 (f), Koni Red

adjustable (r)

Suspension: T3 adjustable-

camber tops, T3 RCAs,

Whiteline sway-bars,

adjustable lanyard rod,

polyurethane bushings

ROLLING STOCK

Rims: SSR MkII;

14x8 (f), 14x9 (r)

Rubber: Kumho Ecsta SPT

185/55 R14s (f & r)

INTERIOR

Steering wheel: Nardi

Seats: Standard

Gauges: Standard

Stereo: Exhaust note!

THANKS

My dad Barry Barker –

he started me young,

teaching me about

pulling things apart,

fixing them up and putting

them back together

That swage line is a doozy; poor attention
to detail along here can ruin an otherwise
pretty car. “If you can nail that when
getting your paint done, it makes a
big difference; you see a lot of other
cars where that line just disappears,”
Troy said. Needless to say, this Celica
definitely has it nailed

THE GUARDS ARE HEAVILY ROLLED AND PULLED;

A LOT OF PEOPLE RUN FLARES, BUT I WANTED TO

KEEP IT CLEAN; IT WAS MORE OF A CHALLENGE