Toyota Altezza heart transplant

The tale of a humble white altezza in need of a new lease of life. The owner being a good friend of mine shed some light on the operation. This altezza being one of many to be flooded into the country in the famous import era of between early 2000’s to 2009. Thankfully the car still bares the mark of its assembly from Kanto autos.

Which resides in the small town of Kanegasaki in Iwate prefecture.

Since it’s assembly in Japan it has slowly transformed from the four door luxury sports sedan once it’s true potential was awoken from the 3S-GE BEAMS engine.

It didn’t take the Japanese long to figure out the 4 cylinder beams engine combined with its drivetrain would be a perfect affordable drifting setup.

Due to its strong structure made up of an iron block with an aluminium alloy head. Developing 210bhp from factory.

When it comes down to styling the owner sports a subtle yet functional option, the infamous TRD V1 kit. Sitting on factory altezza wheels.

And to strengthen its agility and styling it’s stiffened on a Set of BC coilovers.

When it comes to exhaust work especially full systems has to be a HKS hi-power straight through exhaust.

The small touches being the vortex roof spoiler accompanied by a lower TRD duckbill spoiler.

But when it comes down to pushing a car to its limit it can have quiet costly consequences the more common cost being sets of tyres, in this situation being an oil leakage into chamber 4 causing frequent misfiring and with with time could be a total mess.

So the decision was made to lock it up and lift it while the engine tear out began.

With the engine out on a late Wednesday night the collection of a locally sourced 3S-GE 4 cylinder beams engine was underway in the hopes to breath new life into the small piece of Japanese automotive history.

In the mean time the old engine was stripped and assessed for damage as a result of oil leakage.

With the car being the owners only mode of transport it was a timely process that needed to be heavy pressed so after just 48 hours the car was one turn of a key away from its new life.

No doubt this won’t be the final form for this altezza but it is a foundation for what is definitely to be a real deal Japanese classic.