There are some questionable memorabilia that I own. Like for instance an unused official Toyota Carina notepad with Sonny Chiba and Kayoko Kishimoto riding on top of a 3A-II engine. Yes, that sounds more bizarre than it actually is, but I digress… I found this Toyota 3T-GTEU ashtray for sale on Mercari and I was stunned by its price: 166 dollars!
It does look very similar to the 3T-GTEU head. For comparison, here is an image of a Bond-girl hugging a 3T-GTEU engine:
3T-GTEU engine specs
Just in case you forgot the 3T-GTEU engine specs, they are on the underside of the ashtray:
It reads the engine is a turbocharged twin-cam engine. Somehow they forgot to mention it’s also a twin-spark engine. You can see there are eight sparkplugs in the head. I also wonder who thought it was a good idea to put the engine specs on the underside of an ashtray. Every time someone wonders what the specs are, they have to put the ashtray upside down. What happens when you put an ashtray upside down? You drop all the ashes and cigarette butts. Brillant!
Box art
The box reads “3T-GTEU headcover ashtray” and “Toyota Twin Cam Turbo”. The 3T-GTEU engine code denotes the following: T for the engine family, the 3 that it’s a 1.8 litre, the G that it’s a twin cam head, the T that it’s a turbocharged engine, the E that it’s got electronic fuel injection and the U that it’s supposed to be installed longitudinally. Does this also mean you have to use the ashtray longitudinally?
Now would you pay 166 dollars for an ashtray? I gave up smoking decades ago, so I certainly wouldn’t!
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