The seller of today’s custom Toyota says it’s a Turbo Tercel done right- and readily anticipates challenges to that statement. Right now it’s up to you to determine if it’s also a Tercel priced nice.

The Tercel was first introduced into the US market in 1978, which also happened to be the year of yesterday’s . The comments on that Calty-designed coupe indicated that many of you were mellow to its yellow form. Despite that, it did walk away with an laudable 57% Nice Price win.

While the marque was introduced back in the seventies, the Tercel representing here today is a fourth generation and hails from that model’s initial year, 1991. Unlike the Celica which had sporting pretensions out of the box, the Tercel’s raison d’être was cheap to buy and cheap to operate. Today’s tries to shake that persona like a Polaroid picture.

The Tercel’s motivation comes from a 1.5-litre 5E-FE, which from the factory put out 110-bhp. With the edition of a Precision turbo and an air-to-air intercooler big enough to play a pick up game on, this one is claimed to do three times that.

The ad offers up the usual litany of upgraded and updated parts that help keep the thing from simply blowing up at the turn of the key, and I’m not about to repeat all that here. Suffice to say some serious money has gone into this Tercel, and if you’re interested in where it went, you know what to do.

But did the builder know what he was doing in dumping that much coin into what’s arguably not the most aggressive or long term investment worthy of buckets into which to piss one’s fortune. This is a fact that even the seller seems to acknowledge, stating in the ad - I understand that it's still just a little econo car and you never get back much of the money you put into these kinds of cars.

You might feel the exact same way, but don’t make up your mind until you see and hear the car singing on the dyno.

Hoo-hoo, hee-hee, ha-ha, oh my.

Does the car’s appearance match its cojones? Well, yes and no. It does have a passel of add-ons, carbon fiber hood, +20 offset Drag DR44s, some JDM old car spice, and of all things a Passat front airdam to help feed the mighty mighty intercooler.

It’s all pretty subtle in execution, or maybe that’s just the fact that a Tercel is just kind of anonymous to begin with.

You don’t need to remain anonymous about this pumped up Toy’s $5,000 price tag, you can click the box and let your voice be heard right below. In fact, why don’t you do that right now? What do you think, is this Tercel worth five grand? Or, is that a price that makes this a turbo that just blows?

You decide!

, or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to Tom Weaver for the hook up!

Help me out with NPOCP. Click to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.