The Ultimate Toyota Celica

What is it?
The Ultimate Toyota Celica

What's special about it?
Take one new Toyota Celica GT-S, add the super-tuning experience of veteran Pikes Peak master Rod Millen, mix well with Toyota's own TRD performance maestros and stand back. Mister Toad's Wild Ride lives and breathes in nothing less than a 500-horsepower, all-wheel drive screaming yellow zonker known only as the Ultimate Celica. Developed by the same trio of enthusiasts who conceived the Lexus Street Rod and Toyota Retro Cruiser - Toyota execs Jim Press, Yale Geiszl and Bryan Bergsteinsson - the Ultimate Celica is the most bad-to-the-bones concept Toyota has shown to date. Powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder that's been bored, stroked and fitted with a turbo, the Ultimate Celica reaches it peak horsepower at 8,000 rpm and creates a bone-jarring 340 foot-pounds of torque at 5,500 rpm. To handle the added muscle, Mullen added a rally-inspired all-wheel-drive system and five-speed manual transmission. Additional modifications include a custom roll cage, manhole cover-size brakes, lowered springs and specially valved struts. In the styling department, a new front fascia (which mimics the Gurney Eagle Champ car's nose) rear body panel and box-shaped rear wing add to the overtly aggressive look. Nineteen-inch BBS racing wheels shod in 245/35 Michelin Pilot tires attempt to put the horsepower to the pavement.

Why should you care?
American automakers aren't the only performance-minded, gear heads anymore. As Toyota demonstrates in this tire-scorching monster, you can still take a car off an assembly line, tweak a motor, tune the suspension, add more rubber to the ground and turn out a reliable heart-in-the-seat-of-your-pants-ride.