1990s Japanese sports cars are undoubtedly the better offerings that came from that corner of the world. The Japanese manufacturers understood turbocharging and how to make “276 horsepower” feel a hell of a lot more stout than it should have. Think about the cars we did get: the Dodge Stealth/Mitsubishi 3000GT, the first two generations of Mitsubishi Eclipse, the Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, and others were serious machines when they were sold here…but we didn’t get all of the good stuff. Cars like the Nissan Skyline and this little freakshow, the Celica GT-Four, were gems that are just now legal thanks to that pesky 25-year-old importation rule.

Wait a minute…we had the Celica and GT-Four versions, you might say. Yes and no…yes, we got the four-eyed Celica. Yes, we got the GT-Four, but only in the previous two generations. We didn’t get the ST205 variation that you’ll see below, and it’s a shame we didn’t. Part of that might have been to avoid stepping on the toes of the Supra and Lexus SC series (read: Toyota Soarer). But the reason that this Celica should be looked at involves the reason why it was banished from World Rally racing in 1996: a cheaty turbocharger setup that was so slick, it’s assumed that someone on the team tipped off the FIA to investigate. You can read more about the turbocharger HERE, but the short version is that if you took the turbo off of the car, you wouldn’t notice a thing; but put the turbocharger on the car and special spring setup opened up additional airflow that bypassed a restrictor plate. Right up until the FIA figured things out, Toyota had been kicking all sorts of ass in WRC.

Within a year, the earliest versions of the ST205 become import-legal. It’s daily driver material for sure, but wouldn’t you love to find that flat-brim hat wearing Subaru brat and show him that the STI isn’t the final word in turbocharged, all-wheel-drive streetfighting?