How many st185 group a rallyes are about?

[MikeGrpA]

I was just wondering, how many members here have one of these? Toyota only built 150 of them for Australia, and that was all the way back in '91, so my guess is a few would have been destroyed back in the day in competition.

I wonder how many of the original 150 are left. Obviously, being such a historically significant car for toyota, most owners would treat them well and keep them well maintained.

Now would be an excellent time to buy one of these cars, as they tick all the boxes for future collectibility. They are rare (only 150 australian cars), they are interesting (great styling and some very interesting features), they have a racing pedigree (being a genuine homologation special for rallying), and they have motorsport success (with 3 wrc driver's titles, and 2 manufacturers titles - the most successful toyota rally car ever). I really think these will sky rocket in price one day in the not so distant future.

I've seen 3 for sale in the last six months, two for $13,000, and one for $20,000. The $20,000 one didn't seem in any better condition to the others, so perhaps the seller was a little optimistic there lol, but I can see these achieving prices like this in a couple of years, maybe less, depending on rarity, and owner's willingness to sell.

I picked one up, from an old bloke who was the second owner, for $4,500 last year (I know, right). He had dropped the price from over $8k because of a lack of interest, people didn't know what it was, and being older, he only advertised it in the local paper. I was very lucky to stumble accross it, as I had the money, and immediately knew what it was, as I had dreamed of owning one as a small child.

It had been driven once a week for the previous 2 years, as the owner had a bad back and knees and didn't enjoy driving it like he used to. He needed to sell it because, with his and his wife's two cars, plus the celica, he was paying $1500 per year in rego alone, and then servicing them all as well. He also was building a motorhome, from an old bus, and it needed the conversion finished to be put on a normal rego $500 per year roughly, as it was still on a commercial rego, which is thousands per year. He dropped the price to $4,500 because that was exactly what he needed to finish his motorhome project. The stars had aligned for me when I found the car.

I checked it out, and it was all original, except the stereo (the standard stereo came with the car as well). It needed some tlc, as it was due for a service, and had a small leak from the rocker cover gasket. It also needed new tyres, and a right-front wheel bearing. I had all of this done immediately, as I had sold my old manual vs bommodore as soon as I bought the celica. I also added an aftermarket boost gauge, and an oil pressure gauge.

The car came with a trailer load of spare parts, including a complete rear hatch in the same colour, rear bar, tail lights, front indicators, and both side mirrors, perfect condition (almost brand new).

It also had all the original books from when the car was sold new, with an almost complete service history (180,000kms of service history on a car with 205,000, plus it had the reciept for the 200,000k service), and even had the original sale reciept.

It competed in Targa Tasmania in 1998, with it's first owner, and the old fella gave me two framed photos of it in Targa, and the targa competition number off the door, which had also been framed.

I couldn't, and still can't, believe my luck. I've had some rotten luck with some of my cars in the past, I guess it was all worth it to get such good luck with this one. I've owned it almost a year now, and it's beautiful to drive, puts a smile on my face every day.

I would love to hear from anyone else with one of these, and would love to hear the stories of their cars, as these are so unique, all of their stories are worth reading.

Sorry about the novel guys, thanks to anyone who read it all the way to the end! lol

Here are some photos of my baby: