Japan's unloved rally cars

Japanese cars participated in the WRC as far back as the 70's, but it was always their attempts in the eighties and nineties that captivated me. Their failed and then successful attempts at selling homologated versions of these cars in the US is equally interesting. As such I'd like to highlight a few of the early rally cars that Japan tried to sell us.


1988-1989 Toyota Celica All-Trac

Full disclaimer: A 1988 Celica All-trac was the first car I ever owned. I loved it and it will always have a soft spot in my heart.

The fourth generation Celica was introduced to the U.S. in 1986, having made the switch from RWD to FWD. The engine was also new, with the top of the line GT-S making 135hp from its 2.0L S series engine which, unlike the power plant in the third generation Celica, didn't do double duty as a truck power plant.

Japan brought over the All-trac in 1988. The most obvious additions were all-wheel-drive and a turbocharger. The all-wheel-drive system used a viscous center differential to send power to all four wheels with a 50-50 torque split. The turbocharger boosted the horsepower of the new engine up to 190.

It was a reasonably fast car, hitting sixty in the low seven second range, a time likely hampered by the difficulty of launching an all-wheel-drive car. Like most turbocharged cars from the 80's the turbo lagged before coming on fairly suddenly, usually above 3000 RPM.

Shifting was handled by a five speed manual transmission with one of the longest throws ever seen on a sports car. The action was relatively imprecise offering not much feel or smoothness. The upshot was that the Celica All-Trac had one of the most durable transmissions ever built and unlike many of the other cars listed here, Celica All-Tracs rarely faced expensive transmission failure problems once they were a little older.

The Celica All-Trac was relatively heavy at around 3200lbs, thanks to that all-wheel-drive system. It was also somewhat softly sprung and with relatively skinny tires, the chassis would melt into understeer fairly easily. Though decently capable at the time, it wasn't a brilliant car to drive on pavement. The steering was relatively numb, and the car only felt really good up to about eight tenths.

Dirt and snow were another matter entirely. The 50-50 torque split really made its self known on loose surfaces where the All-Trac would feel both stable and relatively easy to rotate under power. The soft suspension also started to make sense and the vehicle would transform from a slightly clumsy sports car to a capable and fun to drive rally machine.

Production numbers are a bit of a mystery, with Toyota claiming to have built around 26,000 turbocharged all-wheel-drive Celicas between 1986 and 1989. It is likely that only about 3000 of those made it to the U.S however, making it an extremely rare car in this country.

1990-1991 Galant VR-4

The Galant VR-4 has the distinction of being the only one of these cars to leave some sort of lasting physical impression on the U.S. until the great rally car boom in the mid 2000's. Sold for only two years in North America, the Galant VR-4's drivetrain would continue to soldier on in the Eclipse GSX and Eagle Talon TSi AWD through two more generations of those cars before finally bowing out in the late nineties. The drivetrain would then re-emerge with the introduction of Lancer Evolution in the U.S. several years later, finally dying for the last time when it was replaced in the most recent version of the Lancer Evolution.

The 1990 Galant VR-4 demonstrates just how diverse the WRC field was in the late eighties. Economy car based hatchbacks like the Mazda 323GTX and Lancia Delta Integrale mixed it up with sports coupes like the Celica all-trac and mid-sized sedans like the Galant VR-4 and Subaru Legacy Turbo. Who would've guessed that it was the economy cars that eventually won out in the WRC? Never the less, the big Galants and Legacys were fun to watch, as they took up the whole road going sideways.

Roadgoing VR-4s were imported in extremely limited numbers in the U.S., 1000 came over in 1990 and 2000 came over in 1991. They were powered by a 195hp 2.-L 4-cylinder turbocharged engine which, like everything else here, sent power to all four wheels. Zero to sixty times were in the mid seven second range, though like the Celica, launching on a drag strip was problematic with all-wheel-drive. Unique to the Galant however, was a four wheel steering system, which activated at speeds above 31 mph and allowed the rear wheels to turn up to 1.5 degrees in order to improve handling.

The Galant VR-4 wasn't helped by its peculiar styling which Car and Driver once compared to Frigidaire, but rally cars have never been about looking good, ugliness is all part of the charm.

Mazda 323 GTX

Where the Galant VR-4 was ugly, the 323 GTX was ugly AND anonymous. Based on a lowly economy hatchback in the last couple of years before a redesign, the 323 GTX was never the less a diamond in the rough.

One of the best things about these cars was the engineering that went into them. They were more than just turbocharged all-wheel-drive versions of the cars they were based on. The 323 GTX actually rode on a wider track than the standard 323 and it featured a stiffer chassis. These weren't just special editions, they were half way to being an entirely different car.

Power came from a 1.6L four cylinder that also did duty in the Miata. However in this application, it was turbocharged and intercooled for a total of 132 horsepower. While this is down quite a bit from the 190-ish horsepower in the VR-4 and All-trac, the 323 GTX also weighs significantly less, at under 2700lbs. That weight was good for the time, but by todays standards, the 323 GTX is practically a featherweight, comparing favorably to the Subaru BRZ.

The GTX's light weight was really it's trump card over the other road going rally cars available from the period. Where the Celica could occasionally feel ponderous, the 323 was nimble and tossable. It was a sports car where the other two were grand tourers.

Unfortunately the 323 GTX was only sold for two years, in 1988 and 1989. About 1200 were sold in the U.S., roughly half of the target number Mazda was hoping for. Potential buyers were put off by a price that was compromised by the expensive additions of all-wheel-drive and turbocharging, viewing it as complexity for complexities sake.

It is just this complexity, however that makes these road going rally cars so interesting. These were cars built by engineers, not bean counters. They were a glimpse into the future, yet none of them sold. They were a case of being too ahead of their time to be commercially successful. Now they're just interesting relics of the past, but maybe someday they'll be recognized as classic automobiles from an era ripe with possibilities.