Toyota is set to bring back the Celica for an eighth generation, more than two decades after the last version went on sale, as an entry model for its new GR performance brand.
The sports coupe will return as part of President Akio Toyoda’s ambition to resurrect the “three brothers”, his affectionate nickname for the Supra, MR2 and Celica. With the Supra revived through a partnership with BMW several years ago, and plans taking shape for an imminent resurrection of the mid-engined MR2, the Celica is expected to be next in line.
The firm is yet to commit to a timeline, but a test mule for Toyota’s 2027 World Rally Championship contender was recently spotted sporting a radically new two-door body. Next year’s WRC rules no longer tie the body to a current road car, but it would make sense for Toyota to use it to promote a new Celica.
Switching from the GR Yaris currently competing in the WRC to the Celica would be a return to form for Toyota, which has used various iterations of its coupe as a basis for factory rally cars over the years, winning the 1993 and 1994 WRC with Celicas.
As with previous generations, the new road-going Celica is expected to rely heavily on more conventional underpinnings, and logically those would be supplied in its next introduction by the bold new Corolla, which was unveiled as a futuristic, ground-breaking concept at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show.
A two-door, sporty-oriented version of its successful family hatchback model would provide Toyota with a direct rival to the similarly conceived Civic-based Honda Prelude and provide a less extreme entry point to the expanding GR lineup, which will be headlined by the new V8-powered GR GT supercar.
The new model, referred to internally as the Celica Sport, is expected to use the same 2.0-litre engine as the GR Yaris M concept used as the mule for the new MR2, but here mounted at the front (as it has been in the previous seven generations) and forming part of a hybrid powertrain, Corolla-style.
WRC regulations for 2027 call for a 1.6-litre engine, so the rally car is expected to use an evolution of the current GR Yaris engine, but Mikio Hayashi, marketing manager for Toyota’s GR division, previously told Autocar that the three-cylinder “cannot meet emissions regulations, so we have to consider the possibility of a 2.0-litre” in the road-going derivative.
He said the company is “not at a stage where we can tell you exactly what size it is” and that no decision has been made about whether it will use a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain. The Corolla will be available with both and, like the MR2, will use a new engine that is as small as possible to allow for a low body and spacious cabin.
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