'80s DREAM OFF-ROAD RALLY CAR

Safari Vet Paves the Way

- ANYA MURPHY

How many times have you seen a 3rdgen Celica rolling on 27-inch MTs? Probably never. But by now you’ve probably learned to always expect the unexpected. That’s exactly what Jon Rood’s 1984 Toyota Celica named “Carlos” is: Unexpected, in the best way possible. Almost everything on the car has been modified, but, even more custom than not, the original frame of the car is still recognizable to those who know what to look for.

Seeing a Celica rip up in the desert like you’ll see on these pages is certainly unexpected, too. “Toyota never meant the Celica to be an off-road toy, Safari car to play in the desert,” Jon tells us, never one to be held back by what things are supposed to be, “I’ve used the car for all of it.” He’s driven Carlos as a course closing car at more than a dozen rallies, taken 300- to 400-mile Safari runs through the Arizona desert, camped in the high country, and more. Even just driving around town to work, to local CnCs, grocery shopping, picking his kids up from school, it’s a “do-anything car that I built for me to enjoy.”

Perfection Takes Time… And Money 

All customizing of the chassis, suspension, and body was done by Jon himself, in a two-car garage. When Jon began working on Carlos in 2009, he intended it to be a fast and cheap off-road toy, just a fun interim side project to work on between rally races. In the years that have passed, though, he’s made some major upgrades. “Not as cheap as it was originally,” he laughs, “but still very reasonable when all the labor was basically free.”