Background
The Toyota Celica RA40 made its debut on the 1978 1000 Lakes Rally securing a 6th place overall for Tapio Rainio. This was essentially a facelifted version of the RA20 predecessor and suffered from the same 8 valve cylinder head for 12 months before the FISA relaxed the rules on multi valve cylinder heads enabling Toyota to return to the more powerful 16 valve head, just in time for the 1979 RAC Rally where Rainio’s Celica was the only factory car to finish in 11th place. The RA40 also saw the switch from carburettors to fuel injection.
The 1980 season saw success in the German National Rally championship, but the big results on the World Rally Championship failed to materialise despite the efforts of its drivers Eklund, Rainio, Mikkola and Toyota Team Europe (TTE) team manager Ove Andersson.
The 1981 season Andersson retire from driving and focus on developing the team and car with Waldegard and Eklund, with an improvement in results coming quickly.
The 1982 season saw the RA40 make one start on the Portuguese rally where it finished 2nd overall in the hands of Eklund, after which the car was retired from competition being replaced by the RA63.
This Car
Is a 1980 TTE factory-built Toyota Celica. It was Ove Andersson’s Acropolis Rally recce car, before being sent to Sweden for Leif Anderstad to drive on Swedish National Rallies (with Ove driving it on occasion as they were great friends). It was built with Ove/Leif in mind and whilst being called the recce car, was in fact a full works spec rally car, which has certified by Toyota as works TTE car.
It was re-imported several years ago into Germany after losing its engine and gearbox., however when discovered, other than engine/gearbox missing, it was found in amazing original condition.
The owner purchased the car and restored it using e-TTE mechanics in Germany which including fitting of a very special Gp4 2.3 engine (of which only 5 were made) and not the normal 2.0 engine, which was rebuilt with the support of Ove before he passed away and who helped with the history of the engine. That engine was the only one of the five used by TTE as the other four were used by Dan Gurney for the Baja Toyota pickup team, which was based in US.
Technical :-
Engine : 2300cc, DOHC, 16v 245bhp
Induction : Naturally Aspirated, with Fuel Injection
Transmission : Rear Wheel Drive, Five speed Close Ratio Gearbox with LSD
