Equipment
2.2-liter F22C four-cylinder and 6-speed manual from a Honda S2000, limited-slip, BBS RS wheels, Wilwood brakes, AccuAir suspension, Addco sway bars, Jenvey individual throttle bodies, tubular header, as well as fiberglass bumpers, front and rear spoilers, flared wheel arches, Bride bucket seats, carbon-fiber interior trim, an NRG steering wheel and quick-release hub, and aftermarket stereo components.
Condition
The seller bought the car in 2010, sight unseen out of Oklahoma. The S2000 swap had already been professionally done, but the rest of the car had serious rust so a complete teardown and rebuild to its current configuration took place from 2011-16. It still looks gorgeous, and the attention to detail is impressive, especially things like the fabricated rear bodywork and blended-in fender flares.
Market commentary
<p>A $64K final price isn’t cheap, and it’s about 10 grand more than an absolutely perfect S2000 would sell for, but it’s also almost certainly less than the sum of the parts used to build it, to say nothing of the hours and hours of specialist labor. It’s also less than the $65,100 someone paid for a very clean but all-stock ’76 Celica Liftback model on Bring a Trailer two years ago.</p> <p>The market for restomods is a tough one to figure out. Some cars sell for big prices, well into the six figure territory it cost to build them. Certain models—C2 Corvettes are a perfect example—have seen enough restomod builds to create a small, trackable market and generally understood pricing. Most others don’t, and it has us thinking ahead to ten or 20 years from now and how the market will treat older, used restomods that will have been around long enough to be classics in their own right. Regardless, in this case somebody got a badass, fast, very well-done Celica restomod for way less than it cost the seller to put it together, and that isn’t a bad way to buy a car.</p>