Everyone should be AWARE of Camry....Camri? I've had them on my mind lately...
I don't think it's anything important, but I'm a bit of a freak. I sit and toil most of the day, often with no budget (both variations of that ideal). To be honest, I've really been lost in the whole concept that a car is really just 4 wheels, some sort of steering and propulsion, but the 4 wheels is really just an approximation. To be completely honest, the reality is that a chassis is just a 'spacer' that holds all the functioning parts of the car together. Truely anything can be fast if you plan on fabrication from the start, then the body really doesn't matter.
Camri...? are everywhere, and oddly enough, under, no wrongly appreciated. There's a big community following them, but much like the poor souls on the Intrepid, Malibu and Taurus forums, the people 'modifying' them are just 17 year olds with hand me downs and a bit internet ego. I've dreamt about my own Camry build, but I doubt you care about that.
The first gen Camry's are just down right ugly! But...no I'm not past that, they are hideous, but that lends themselves to be the perfect project for the beginner. Being on the west coast, it seems that Toyota actually did sell a lot of these, and the east just treated them badly. There were some pictures a few years ago from a Toronto Toyota Nation meet, one of these first gen....er well, second gen, Camri...? showed up. Dumped, rotten, roof racks and bald 13's. It's a car that really lends it self well to the euro 'rat look'. Those pictures are long dead sadly.
Now that, There, above, yes. That's a first gen Camry...well. Sort of since that's a Celica....err....it's both. It's breaks a whole crazy amount of rules. See it's a the only 4 door production Celica, but the only production Camry. Pretty neat huh?
This is my favorite gen, the 2nd/3rd gen. Here's where my idea comes in, and screw you if you don't like it. Camry sedan, which were offered in manual, a dark charcoal orange, black wheels, but the important part is the...well, that's the thing, the since the fir...second gen Camry, when they became FWD, the Camry and the Celica FWD's shared a tons of parts, essentially a platform. The cool thing is the ever so awesome Celica All-trac gave Toyota the parts bin to build these generations in 4wd! I know no one cars, but next time you see one of these roll by check the grill and the trunk lid, in place of the LE or the V6 badge was a 4WD badge. I've found so many of these sitting in yards and parking lots and people just don't know what a fun car they have.
And now we have the Toyota Sceptor! The Camry named continued in Japan, but along side of it, for some reason, came the Sceptor, a nearly identical car just with a different name. Some more wagons.
Oddly enough the 4WD disapeared, get this, a soccer mom's car, before the SUV craze, didn't have enough buyers to really continue the 4WD onto the next generation model. Funny huh: "I like to feel safe, with my high ride height and 4wd", and that's proof that 4wd had nothing to do with the SUV craze, just that soccer mom's are idiots and size very much 'matters' to them. In any case, just like Eddie Murphy proclaimed for the Celica, the Camry was now offered with the hyped early 90's 4 wheel steering, but i believe the only got it in Japan. The American buyers also got a little treat? I don't know if it's a treat, if hobo's like McDonalds does that mean it's the most nutrition to value? If Americans want a FWD coupe Camry does that make it cool? No. But they made and sold it anywhere, even with a v6!
This pictured above is what later led to the creation of the later "Solara" model, slightly less ugly, slightly.
Obviously the Camry continues on from here, but it's really not interesting. Things got 'murrican'. The point here was that the roots of the Camry were pretty varied and interesting. Oh and I hope you enjoyed all the wagons, this article was originally going to be about Camry wagons. Hey, here's a Japanese Camry Gracia Wagon. Which only Japan and Australia got. We just got stuck with the sedans. Did I mention this particular example is 4wd? bastards.....
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It´s FWD, so not that easy!
lets see a drift camry.