NutDriver Racing   Carl

Toyota Celica GT-S The Toyota Celica is The Nuts' second track car. Since the team has two drivers, we thought it might be a good idea to have two track cars. Besides, there are some events where it's just not possible for two drivers to share a car, SCCA Novice School, for example.

This Celica began its life as a Toyota Celebrity Challenge car. The Celebrity Challenge runs as part of the lead up event to the CART Grand Prix of Long Beach (California). This car was taken from the production line and specifically built for that purpose by Toyota Racing Development (TRD). It ran in the Celebrity Challenge for about four years. It's never been registered or titled. Every one of the miles on its clock has been on the race track, mostly in driver's school events. The Nuts haven't decided whether that's a good thing of a bad thing. ;-)

Righty spoke with one of the fellows associated with the Celica's start in life, and it was driven in the Celebrity Challenge by none other than Dennis Franz of NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues one year!

After retirement from the Celebrity Challenge, this Celica moved on to the Fast Lane Driving School. The school resides at Willow Springs Raceway and provides all of the instruction for the Celebrity Challenge, where it was used as a school car.

The school then sold it into the amateur racing market. At one point, it even took third place in class (22 of 55 overall) in the 12 Hours at the Point at Summit Point Raceway. That's why the car has those “rally looking” headlights mounted on the hood. They're angled out so that they “look around the corner”.

Eventually it ended up in The Nuts' stable, complete with log books from both the SCCA and NASA.

Like the RX-7, the Celica has been moderately prepared, suitable for the SCCA Improved Touring A (ITA) class, NASA PS-2 class, and HSR Historic classes.

We have sold the Celica, replacing it with the #91 RX-7 so there won't be any more information appearing on this site about it.

Photos

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