18rg in RA40 - Period accessories?

[wal_ra40]

Somewhere between the first and the fifth RA40 I have become an enthusiast! So here goes...

With historic registration in NSW:
"Vehicles must be as close to original condition as possible, with NO alterations except for safety features such as seat belts and turn indicators or period accessories and options, if desired."

My question is what constitutes period accessories on an 18rg/18rgeu/RA40?

My cars get entered into hillclimbs and dirt events, so I would like to modify them while keeping true to their heritage. In their day they were entered in rally and circuit racing so there should be plenty of options!

[ian]

as long as the car is in a roadworthy condition
you should not have many problems
an an 18rg/gue block is the same as the 18rc , so no problem there
they dont necessarily have to be period modifications , an example would be quartz halogen light upgrade , fine
gas struts fine
15 inch rims fine
turbo or supercharger fine
my blue shitter track car is on club plates
that has an 18rg in it
my silver 28 is about to receive a 18rgue
and that also is on club plates
there a a few rules that have to be obeyed
firstly the log book has to be filled in even if you just go down the street
if caught, and its not filled in you can have the car confiscated under the hoon legislation
and that also results in immediate cancellation of your permit
another thing to keep in mind is that if you are detected doing the wrong thing , any member of any car club can lodge a complaint
and that also can result in loss of permit and your car club gets a warning with a possible cancellation of there privilege to issue permits

there are a few topics on this subject on the forums
you may have to do a little searching
cheers
ian

[SilverRA23]

I think you will find that what is considered fine and cool in Victoria for club rego is not the same in NSW.

Certainly from my observations of the Toymods historic registered cars, they are very very close to original showroom spec.

I reckon you would be better to talk to someone in the know than rely on opinions in the forum. You want to deal in cold hard facts

[river]

Hi,

We accept safety mods such as better suspension... as the original suspension is either old and rooted or just sloppily dangerous, better head lights, repace standard seat belts with intertia ones. These are safety mods, which are accepted.

Period style mags are also fine. Period badging is okay. Replacing your 18R-C with a carby 18R-G is fine... as it was an option at the time of manufacture. Replacing your carby engine with a fuel injected one is not accepted if EFI was not an optional engine package for the vehicle, at time of manufacture. If the RA40 never came with EFI then you cannot put in an EFI engine in your vehicle and remain on Historic Plates... certainly not in Toymods.

A lot of it comes down to the club and how they administer their historic vehicles. Some clubs let anything in and this defeats the spirit of the historic vehicle guidelines. Any club is subject to being inspected and if they are not abiding by the guidelines they can have their plates revoked. Victoria may be different.

seeyuzz
river

[ian]

you are absolutely correct there river
it does vary from state to state ,
i guess we are a little luckier here , having said that
abuse of this privilege wont be tolerated ,

[wal_ra40]

River, your take on this seems to be pretty similar to the club that I am in.

It looks like there were a number of 2nd generation celicas sold in different parts of the world, with engines like 2t-geu, 18r-gu and 18r-geu but no turbo production versions. That does leave a lot of scope.

Also a conversation with a other members of the car club often goes like this:
"Hey, your car is very fast. Have you done much to it?"
"It's a replica of the 1960 rally winning whatever. It has the same carb setup, suspension and chrome bits. As it is mechanically true to the rally version I have it on club plates."

On this basis I guess it would be ok to use some technology from the ra40 rally cars of the era. Like mechanical fuel injection, various carbs and even 16v heads! What about roll cages?

[river]

Hi,

The RA40 series, which I regard as the 3rd Gen (if based upon chassis changes as the 23/28 was a different chassis to the 22/25/27 - but that's immaterial for this discussion) did have numerous engines. The 18R-GEU was introduced into the range in 1978 - 5 months after the launch of the RA40 model.

The engines used in the RA40 series are... 12T-U, 3T-U, 2T-GEU, 18R-U, 18R-GU and 18R-GEU. So, based upon this an 18R-GEU is an acceptable engine to put into an RA40 and remain valid on historic plates.

No turbo variants were sold from the factory that I am aware of.

seeyuzz
river

[ian]

turbo variants were available through dealers

[wal_ra40]

Turbo variants from dealers Ian... any details?

[river]

Hi,

Bill Buckle Toyota was one that did turbo add-on stuff at the dealership level. I know they sold a turbo TA22, but not sure about the 23, 28 or the 40 series. Furthermore, they were not like the turbo and ECU systems we have today - and therefore it'd be difficult to try and push a classic car through historic plates with a nice new late gen turbo and current generation ECU under the guise that turbo models were sold back in the 70s and you are trying to replicate these models.

Get your hands on a HKS blow-thru carby turbo set up and you'd probably be okay as they were around in that era as a performance accessory. Mind you they'd be pretty rare and expensive now, assuming you actually found a good working example.

seeyuzz
river

[ian]

there was a toyota dealership in melbourne that offered a suck through unit
i am still trying to track down the name
i think from memory it was down the brighton area in melb
we tried the same type of unit with our club car , but set up information was extremely hard to get
they mainly used a 45mm side draught webber

[ian]

this is the type


we had a zenith carb on this similar in design to a SU

[floody]

Hi,

The RA40 series, which I regard as the 3rd Gen (if based upon chassis changes as the 23/28 was a different chassis to the 22/25/27 - but that's immaterial for this discussion) did have numerous engines. The 18R-GEU was introduced into the range in 1978 - 5 months after the launch of the RA40 model.

The engines used in the RA40 series are... 12T-U, 3T-U, 2T-GEU, 18R-U, 18R-GU and 18R-GEU. So, based upon this an 18R-GEU is an acceptable engine to put into an RA40 and remain valid on historic plates.


seeyuzz
river

I'm curious (I'm not in NSW so I'll never be taking up this option) but riddle me why an engine never, ever fitted to an Australian volume import is considered an option, vis a vis 18R-G, yet apparently RA25 taillights would be contra the guidelines (as someone else has related to me from their experience). You can't possibly say an 18R-G was an 'option' in an Aussie RA40/RA28 with a straight face. Let alone fender mirrors and GT badges. It seems a bit inconsistent with reality?

[river]

Hi,

Because we take the options that were available at the factory. The RA40 may never had an 18R-GEU engine in Australia, but they were available in Japan.. ergo it is permitted.

RA25 tail lights were never a factory option that was fitted to the RA28 series, and therefore are not permitted. Similarly the 18R-GEU was never fitted as a factory option into an RA28, but the carby 18R-GU was. So, you can fit an 18R-GU into your Aussie Ra28 but not the EFi version.

seeyuzz
river

[o_man_ra23]

1. Install 152e
2. Register on historics
3. Win all events in your class
4. ???
5. Profit!!