Backfire

I greatly enjoyed Mark McCourt’s article on Toyota Celica convertibles. He mentioned the Sunchaser, and I thought you would enjoy a photo of my Sunchaser on Daytona Beach, Florida. This was taken not far from the retired Model T factory in Jacksonville, where the Sunchaser conversion was installed. Forgive the road grime. This pic was taken after a 600-mile road trip from Georgia and a day riding on the beach!

There were approximately 500 Sunchasers produced each year of production, for a total of about 1,500 cars. The conversion was thoroughly engineered by Griffith. A search on the web will show photos of Sunchasers involved in rollover accidents, and the cars performed very well. The problem with the Sunchaser was the $4,995 option price, which put these cars in Corvette price range at the time. Not many folks would pay Corvette money for a Celica!

My 1980 is a fully loaded five-speed GT in metallic black. It has 150,000 miles on it and still runs like a Timex watch! I have a yellow one as well.

I also have a ’78 Corvette, a ’75 Firebird, and an ’88 Choo Choo Custom Suburban. I.