Toyota's Tercel represented the company's first, tentative step toward front wheel drive. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe 1984 Tercel isn't just a back step, it's a moon walk onto a rear-drive Cadillac frame. Will its price however be a step in the right direction?
Ontario Canada is a place of replication and duplication. It seems as though everything there is presented in English and French as those two languages battle - amiably of course, this is Canada after all - for national dominance. Also, owing to its proximity to the United States - or as it's more commonly known, Canada's boot heel - a lot of places accept both U.S. Dollars and the Canadian money known as a Loonie for its reverse side bird. I wonder if they consider a coin toss up there as flipping the bird?
Also loonie, or looney as it were - i.e. affected adversely by the phase of the moon - is the creator of this audacious ‘84 Tercel Riding on a Cadillac frame. Not since Reagan riding a velociraptor has there been such a confluence of greatness.
While beloved for its honest approach to personal transportation needs, the Toyota Tercel could have been dunned for its utter lack of V8-ness, something this custom job seeks to redress. The limited detail evident in the ad does manage to explain that the Tercel is sitting on the shortened frame of a 1979 Cadillac Something Deville. Powering the beast is the Caddy 425, which in 1979 4BBL form managed 180-bhp. That's almost three times the output of the Tercel's original 63-horse 1.5-litre.
Behind the 425, and poking its B&M shifter through the Tercel's floor like a glory hole invader is a THM400 3-speed. The transmission of kings! Or, at the very least Caddys as the time. Steel wheels with simple dog dish centers lend the car a non-nonsense vibe, while the rough hewn front fenders give free access to the massive caddy mill.
Up front, free-standing lights, a grille from a high school gym window, and pusher bar obviously salvaged from a shopping trolly corral conspire to make this custom Cadicel something you won't soon forget after first seeing it looming in your rearview.
Inside it's all business - meaning there's a lot of Pep Boys - or Garçons du Dynamisme - going on in there. Those seat covers will ensure that anyone overcome by actually riding in this remarkable machine doesn't befoul it in their excitement, while the exposed screw heads holding the various additional gauges to the dash will allow for easy repositioning should the new owner require.
Also in requirement of being the new owner is the tidy sum of $2,000 Canadian. Now that used to mean an easy joke about how that would be - what, $3.75 American? Now however the Canadian economy is purring along like a chaton while that in the U.S. continues to stumble from one seemingly avoidable catastrophe to another. You know what might perhaps take someone's mind off the current uncertain economic clime? Buying this amazeballs Tercel/Cadillac matchup, that's what.
What do you think, is this Canadian contraption worth two grand in Loonies? Or, is that a price that would make even the most ardent Canadian say oh H-E-Double Hockey Sticks?
You decide!
kajagoogoo or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Hoser Dave for the hookup!
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And, for those of you who can't get enough, here it is on a Canadian site with a very familiar game.