Duke Racing ST185 Celica GT-Four Time Attack Car

Last year I raced my Celica GT-Four in the QLD Time Attack series as well as at the Leyburn Sprints. All was going well, until the block suffered from a crack at the water pump corner (fairly common on 3SGTE blocks).

I have since stripped the car completely and have begun the process of a ground up rebuild.

Doing some interesting things though for the build. I've removed the OEM steering column and have installed the EPS column from a Toyota 86. This connects to the ST185 rack which I've manualised (blocked off the ports, removed the inner piston and seals and welded up the torsion bar). To control it, I'll be sending some custom CAN messages from the secondary CAN channel on the Motec C125 logger dash.

Also swapping in the front uprights from a Toyota Prius, as these are aluminium and have a larger, bolt in bearing with the same PCD.

Pedals have been removed and am installing a PE Racing pedal set, and replumbing entire car.

Engine is being built using a 5SFE block, but retaining the Gen 2 3SGTE head. Using a set of Kelford 272 cams for the Gen 3 head, will be converting to 1ZZ shimless buckets. Turbo is a Precision 5858, which performed well last year so I'm retaining it.

I was lucky enough to win the HP Academy Motec M130 giveaway, so I now have that ECU to use in the build, although I will be getting the firmware changed over to the GPR package as I'm using DBW.

Also going to be wiring the car using a PDM30.

Plenty of work ahead but just plugging along as I can. I'm still racing an Endurance Kart with a friend, and we have a Nissan Bluebird for events like gymkhanas and 24h of Lemons so that gives me a chance to get seat time while I build the GT-Four.

Wicked to hear you are back on track and have the added bonus of the Motec ecu

Any places you like going through to find parts for the car? Looking to do kind of a full restoration on mine.

Also curious about the 86 steering column! How much modification had to be done to get that to fit?