That's, like, a guaranteed Radwood winner. Too cool.
Photography Courtesy Hemmings
Elvis drove a Caddy, Nick Mason has a Ferrari 250 GTO and Kendrick Lamar owns a GNX.
What’s more punk rock, though, than a beat-up 1989 Toyota Celica GT Convertible, complete with dents and dings and some tape residue on the top?
And then there’s the ownership history: Jello Biafra, founding member of the Dead Kennedys, has owned this Celica since 1995.
It’s now on the auction block.
The car might not be mint, he notes, but it has never broken down in his 30+ years of ownership. The odometer currently shows more than 212,000 miles. The clutch is fresh. The car also has a cassette and CD player, he adds, two features no longer so prevalent.
The proceeds go Alternative Tentacles, Biafra’s “long-running but always struggling” record label. The winner might even get to drive it around the Bay Area with the famed punk rock singer–check the auction listing for details.
What’s the Celica worth? Probably not even $8000, Biafra admits, but it is a piece of punk rock history. Everyone who’s ever drawn a DK logo on a pair of Chucks or a 10x30 skateboard deck needs this.
That's, like, a guaranteed Radwood winner. Too cool.
It really is too cool.
And, yes, I had DK playing while writing that.
Colin Wood said:That's, like, a guaranteed Radwood winner. Too cool.
nah, it's not a testarossa or a diablo/countach. hero cars win radwood now that hagerty is involved
There should be a caveat for who ever buys this has to get a custom plate with some reference.
I'd go with Moonmrn or Klpoor.
Watching that video, it wasn't hard for me to imagine an autobiographical link in his songwriting contribution to the hit song "Too drunk to F*ck."
Quite a car, for sure, and excellent provenance.
Man I love some Dead Kennedys. Also love Jello Biafra's and Mojo Nixon's album, Praire Home Invasion.
Love the listing descriptions
- The 1,998-cc engine “purrs like a Marshall stack turned up to 11.”
- The transmission “shifts gears as smooth as sliding in the next power chord.”
- The front windows “still go up and down like a dedicated pogo dancer.”
- The heater “will still wrap you in the warmth of a heavily painted leather jacket.”
COMES WITH
- Punk rock credibility like no other late 1980s Toyota could ever offer.
NEEDS
- The upholstery “will need more safety pins than a punk vest to keep it together”
- “The interior smells like something more than teen spirit.”
- Only one speaker remains operational and “able to raise a fist in protest.”
- The convertible top “epitomizes anarchy as it will sometimes raise up and stand against the oppression of the elements, and other times refuses to conform to the commands of the powers that be in the up/down button.”
- The air-conditioning system is considered “recalcitrant.”
All good cars have a story to tell.
Nice. I hope the auction finds at least two people who absolutely have to have it. Glad I kept my albums.
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