Words: Isaac Western Photos: Sam Parsons
Southland local Paul Wigzell’s full-metal-widebody Celica ST165 might be one of the most well-executed Celica GT-Fours you’ve ever seen, and likely takes the cake for the coolest ST165 you’ve come across. It has a menacing, unforgiving look about it, with plenty of subtle allusions to its WRC title-winning past. The skilfully crafted steel bodykit respectfully builds on what Toyota originally designed, following the original lines of the car, and running a 3S-GTE two-litre, he also stays true to the heritage of this all-wheel-drive Celica.
With all of this then, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the creator and builder of this shadowy machine was a long-term GT-Four fanatic.
Fanatic is definitely one word for it, but Paul puts it differently. He’s a self-proclaimed “GT-Four nerd”, perhaps even the “original GT-Four nerd” — having started the GT-Four Club back in 2000 when he was living in the UK, and finding that there was no club scene for admirers of the car. Naturally, immersing yourself in a specific car’s community tends to draw you in even deeper, and from that point on, as he says, the rest is history.
Paul has been through countless GT-Fours of all generations since his relationship with these cars started. Some have been high-power weapons, rally tributes, or tidy street rollers, and most have run the trusty 3S-GTE. Working on his own cars for this period of time, you could say that he knows the ins and outs of pretty much every generation of turbo 3S. So he definitely knew what he was getting into when he traded his bug-eyed ST205 for a rough-around-the-edges ST165. They don’t come up for sale often, he notes, and this one still had good bones. He was confident that anything mechanical could be fixed in his shed, so it was the body that took priority in this deal.
Like many GT-Fours that have survived the past 30-plus years, this one had been ‘fixed’ by some mechanic who was part man, part bird — judging by the messy nest of wires, vacuum hoses, and fluids in the engine bay. The neglected Gen 2 turbo ran like crap, naturally, which was a little disappointing in the moment, because before he’d driven it, Paul already had that Christmas morning feeling that he’d finally got exactly what he’d been hoping for. Undeterred, he still did the deal.
Having already built plenty of serious 3S engines over the years, he quickly lined up a replacement Gen 4 3S-GTE to rebuild to his own standard. Into the block went a set of Eagle rods, and CP-Carrillo forged pistons to give him peace of mind. The hot side got a hybrid CT20B turbo from an ST205, along with a custom turbo-back exhaust, leading to a titanium side exit. He installed a Forge Motorsport internal wastegate actuator, a Turbosmart Kompact Supersonic BOV, fitted a custom front-mount intercooler, and installed a DW300 fuel pump to help feed the 17psi of boost it would run. The head, ECU, and ignition stayed original Toyota, so as not to get too carried away, but he did upgrade to a Redline aluminium radiator with dual SPAL fans to cool things sufficiently when it hits peak power — at a healthy 195kW.
While he was at it, he figured the factory five-speed manual might as well be treated to an Exedy Heavy-duty four-puck clutch, and why not add a Fidanza aluminium flywheel? All that hardware might have been let down by a tired old diff, so why not sort a Torsen LSD out of an ST205 then as well? Things were really starting to come along now, and mechanically it was taking shape.
With the engine bay looking so fresh now, Paul was forced to think about the rest of the car. He’d done clean street rally replicas many times now, so he wanted to go down a lesser-travelled path. He also wanted to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Thankfully, Paul knew a man who could help with that, so he contacted Auckland’s Mike Chalkley at MSPEC Engineering, who he knew was a very talented fabricator, having worked on previous projects of his before.
So he sent a cursive sketch over to him, loosely inspired by the Japanese late ’80s street racing scene, as well as the aggressive stance of modern time attack cars. From here, Paul and Mike went back and forth with sketches, inspiration, and digital renders until they liked what they saw. After that, Paul dropped it at the shop, where the steel bodykit was worked on as a back-burner project for the next two and a half years. With plenty of updates in between, but after an agonising wait for a Celica-loving soul, he eventually received a message saying that it was finished — and boy, did it look good.
But that wasn’t the end of Paul’s wait. With the new custom body completed, it was now time to get it over to paint. He knew that he didn’t want the original grey it was already painted in, but faced with almost unlimited options, what colour was the best pick? To aid that decision, he thought back to his first ever Celica — also an ST165 — that he picked up in the UK back in 1999. It was black, a rare colour for an ST165, and it was where this love for Celicas had started. So he chose to pay homage to that same car, having James at Topline Panel and Paint strip the car down to give it what it now deserved.
When Paul got the car back one year later (another back-burner job, then), it looked grouse. The Jet Black paint job had a mirror shine to it, and it went well with the polished Rota D154 wheels he’d selected for it — a nod to OZ’s Rally Racing wheels. With fresh paint now covering this custom-bodied Celica, and housing some solid running gear, it was now time to go for certification. He shipped the car back to Southland, where he could finally be reunited with his Celica after three long years, and make any certification changes himself. Thankfully, Paul is handy around the garage, so the initial list of things to change didn’t hold him up too much. He had it certed, WOFed, and on the road without too much trouble.
Does Paul consider the car as done now then? Absolutely not — he’s not sure it will ever be finished. He already has an engine in his garage that he’s building for 400kW, with a standalone ECU, bigger injectors, some head flow work, Kelford cams, and Bosch electronic throttle body on the horizon, set to be completed around 2026 or 2027. He’s also planning to upgrade the Caldina GT-T and ST185 brake setup in favour of Willwood gear, and install air cup suspension in place of the ST185 struts and Cobra lowering springs it currently runs.
For now though, it’s just nice for him to be able to enjoy this car, after missing it for such a long time. In its current form, it’s comfortable, reliable, very drivable, and goes well when it needs to. Paul recently drove over 500km to the 2025 Toyota Festival and back — noting that it handles like a little go-kart.
One part of the car that will stay the same, even after he makes his engine adjustments, will be the cam cover on the 3S-GTE — his favourite detail on the car. He had a custom graphic made for it that features the Marlboro logo and a signature by Carlos Sainz Sr. You may recognise that name from his son, Carlos Sainz Jr, who currently races in Formula One, but before he was even conceived, Carlos Sr was smashing World Rally Championships in the Toyota Celica. His first title came in 1990 using the same generation car as we see here, winning the Rally New Zealand while he was at it, and ending Lancia’s dominant streak. In 1991 he missed out by an excruciatingly tiny margin, but his next title came in 1992, using the more rounded, although still pop-up headlight-equipped ST185. This was a legendary era for the Toyota Celica, cementing its place in rally history with the Marlboro-sponsored Toyota Team Europe rally team. And it was well before the ST205 drama that happened after Carlos had left TTE (a great story).
And so, Paul Wigzell’s Celica ST165 makes a clever nod to its rally-winning heritage, looks absolutely stunning while doing it, and doesn’t have to be so on the nose as your classic rally tribute. All it took was a painstakingly fabricated steel widebody, four years of construction, and 25 years of die-hard Celica experience! We can’t wait to see what Paul’s next stage of development holds for this car.
SPEC LIST
1987 Toyota Celica GT-Four (ST165)
Heart
ENGINE: 3S-GTE fourth-generation, 2000cc four-cylinder
BLOCK: Eagle rods, CP forged pistons
HEAD: Factory, custom cam cover
INTAKE: BMC Racing pod filter, custom front-mount intercooler
EXHAUST: custom turbo back exhaust system, titanium side exit
TURBO: Hybrid CT20B from ST205 Celica GT-Four
WASTEGATE: Forge Motorsport internal actuator
BOV: Turbosmart Kompact Supersonic
FUEL: DW300 fuel pump, custom fuel filler neck, race filler cap
IGNITION: Factory
ECU: Factory
COOLING: Redline aluminium radiator, dual SPAL cooling fans
Drive
GEARBOX: Factory five-speed
CLUTCH: Excedy heavy-duty four-puck
FLYWHEEL: Fidanza aluminium
DIFF: Celica GT-Four ST205 Torsen LSD
EXTRA: TRD short shifter
Support
STRUTS: ST185RC struts, Cobra lowering springs
BRAKES: (F) Caldina GT-T callipers, slotted rotors, Endless pads (R) ST185RC callipers, rotors, EBC Yellowstuff pads
ARMS/KNUCKLES: Factory
Shoes
WHEELS: (F) 16×8 (+20) (R) 16×8+20 Rota D154 jet black polished
TYRES: (F) 245/45R16 (R) 245/45R16 Nankang AS2+
Exterior:
PAINT: Full bare metal respray in Jet Black
ENHANCEMENTS: Custom steel-fabricated wide body kit, front valance and side skirts
Interior
SEATS: Sparco R333 seats, rear seats removed, custom seat mounts
STEERING WHEEL: Nardi Challenge Leather, MOMO boss kit
INSTRUMENTATION: Defi Din oil pressure, water temperature and intake temperature gauges, Savage Performance dual boost gauge, Blitz dual solenoid boost controller (DSBC)
EXTRA: Battery relocated behind the passenger seat
Performance:
POWER: 195kW at the wheels
TORQUE: 410Nm
BOOST: 17psi
FUEL TYPE: 100 NPD
TUNER: Toyota
Driver Profile:
DRIVER/OWNER: Paul Wigzell
AGE: old (52)
LOCATION: Southland
OCCUPATION: Designer
BUILD TIME: Four years
LENGTH OF OWNERSHIP: Seven years
THANKS: The biggest shoutout has to go to my wife — she’s put up with me modifying GT-Fours for over 25 years. I’m honestly married to the best woman in the world; she’s always let me do my thing when it comes to Celica GT-Fours, because she knows how much I love them. Pretty sure I’ve had more GT-Fours in my life than I have women — and that’s saying something!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article originally appeared in New Zealand Performance Car issue 315
