Toyota built their fifth generation Celica as a coupe only, it was the first Toyota to come with dual-mode four wheel steering, something pioneered by Nissan in 1985 for the R31 Skyline.

Toyota decided that the Celica needed a convertible option and, somewhat unusually chose to ship their cars to the American Sunroof Corporation based in Long Beach California USA.

The cars were converted to convertibles by ASC who also developed the convertible Saab 900 and Porsche 944 amongst many others, and then reshipped back to Japan where they were sold through Toyota’s Japanese dealer network.

Our example was discovered, abandoned, in Yorkshire in 2005.

How it came to be on these shores remains a mystery, but once rescued, it was totally refurbished to show standards over the next few years.

This included a bare metal respray involving three coats of two pack paint and five coats of lacquer.

This work was undertaken by Skill Customs of Cheshire who also blended in a discrete body styling k...