WE TALKING ALTEZZA.... Japan’s 1999 Car of the Year’ should be high on your list if you’re in the market for a medium-sized sedan but don’t want to go down the turbocharged route. We’re talking about Toyota’s answer to the E46 BMW 3-Series, the Altezza, and in particular the RS200 edition, which offers up the best balance of performance and style of all models in the range. The Altezza is the Japanese domestic market (JDM) version of the luxury Lexus IS200. The two cars share many similarities but there are enough differences to set them apart. On the same platform, Altezzas were built in two basic rear-wheel-drive guises from 1998 to 2005: AS200 and RS200. The AS200 featured the 1G-FE six-cylinder 2.0-litre engine, while the RS200 got the peaky 3S-GE four-cylinder 2.0-litre engine. Both came in a choice of auto or 6-speed manual transmissions. An Altezza wagon known as a Gita was also sold in AS200 guise only, but with the choice of the 1G-FE engine or a naturally aspirated six-cylinder 3.0-litre 2JZ-GE. The RS200 edition was marketed in three basic versions: RS200, RS200 Z edition and RS200 L edition. Essentially, the Z added a few performance and styling upgrades that we’ll touch on, and the L had all that plus half-leather seats. Using a stock standard RS200 as a guide, here’s all you need to know about this popular model. ENGINE The Altezza RS200 uses the performance-orientated 3S-GE BEAMS (breakthrough engine with advanced mechanism system) four-pot with 11.5:1 compression. The generation four — version two model, and final derivative of Toyota’s naturally aspirated 2.0-litre DOHC 16V mill, includes Dual VVTi and an extractor-style exhaust manifold in its specification to throw out 210ps (154kW) at 7600rpm, and 22kg/m (216Nm) of torque at 6400rpm in the 6-speed manual model. A little less power is achieved in the auto version (see spec, p74).
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:02:08 +0000
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