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Toyota Celica revival imagined – with hot GR flagship
Toyota’s performance revival continues at full pace – but we feel it's time for one of the brand’s icons to make a return.
09 May 2022
With Toyota’s Gazoo Racing (GR) performance arm now firmly established, it would be foolhardy for the division to rest on its laurels.
With rear-wheel-drive products like the flagship GR Supra and handling-focused GR86, alongside high-performance hot hatches – like the rally-inspired GR Yaris, and soon the more practical (but no less potent) GR Corolla – the GR portfolio is looking fairly plump.
There’s still numerous gaps in the product range – some of which have been filled in Japan with everything from GR-tweaked kei cars to minivans. On a global scale though, here at Drive we felt that Toyota’s sports car division needs a trio of actual sports cars – opening the door to a coupe to slot in between the GR86 and GR Supra.
Enter the Celica, an affordable coupe that saw seven generations between 1970 and 2006, and quickly earned a reputation for delivering plenty of enthusiast appeal with an approachable price point.
As with the final-generation Celica, our re-imagined 2022 Celica (imagined by Theophilus Chin) starts with a borrowed Corolla platform – perhaps not the most exciting starting point, but with plenty of tuning potential as part of Toyota’s modular TNGA chassis family.
That modularity opens the door to numerous powertrain options. Again, looking to the past, there’s room for engines from both the Corolla and the Camry, meaning minimum 125kW and 152kW base engine tunes from the donor cars’ 2.0-litre and 2.5-litre engines respectively.
For Australia the 2.5-litre engine would be a great base offering, with the Camry's 2.5-litre hybrid as a 'flagship', tuned to develop at least 170kW – with, hopefully, development room to pair it to a manual and conventional automatic, in place of the Camry's less-exciting 160kW with a CVT.
Being a Celica, and so as not to challenge the outright halo status of Toyota’s rear-wheel drive coupes, front-wheel drive will remain. Front-drive hot cars being a particular joy of their own – plus the Celica’s platform comes ready to run with double-wishbone independent rear suspension.
Rather than tear up the rule book and start from scratch, our eighth-generation Celica picks up where the angular seventh-gen car left off. Similarly low in profile, with an evolution of the triangular headlight from before.
Still a liftback body, still low and sleek, but now featuring the more horizontal elements found on Toyota’s mainstream models.
The slim slit grille harks back to the last Celica, while the front bumper intake draws a link to the current Corolla.
Along the sides there are pumped wheel arches, showing off widened front and rear tracks, with vented front guards, and rising bodyside feature lines and sill panels giving a purposeful sense of motion, even when standing still.
The rear highlights a strut brace-inspired tail-light panel that wraps the rear corners of the car, with LED lighting and vent-styled bumper garnishes emphasising the forward-motion design.
As striking as a new front-wheel-drive Celica could be, it’s just a starting point. The real halo car of a received Celica range would have to be a GR Celica, building on the legend started with the GT-Four Celicas of the fourth, fifth, and sixth-generation models.
For 2022 the GR Celica would take the familiar turbocharged 1.6-litre three-cylinder 'G16E-GTS' engine from the GR Yaris and GR Corolla. Like those flagship models, the Celica would also come with a close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox and variable GR-Four all-wheel drive.
Outputs for the GR Celica can only be range-topping, so we’d like to see the highest output 220kW engine from the GR Corolla, with the 390Nm output from the GRMN Yaris. Similarly, Torsen limited slip differentials front and rear, ‘circuit’ suspension and forged alloy wheels are non-negotiable.
Externally, we identified a range of Celica halo elements we just had to have: the GR-exclusive stepped central air intake, enlarged vents behind the front wheels, the GR Corolla’s trio of functional exhaust tips, an ST205 GT-Four-inspired bonnet scoop and, of course, GR’s iconic Frosted White paint.
Sadly, for the time being, there's no indication Toyota will put a new Celica into production, with the company instead content with the GR86 and GR Supra. We can dream...
Toyota’s performance revival continues at full pace – but we feel it's time for one of the brand’s icons to make a return.
09 May 2022
With Toyota’s Gazoo Racing (GR) performance arm now firmly established, it would be foolhardy for the division to rest on its laurels.
With rear-wheel-drive products like the flagship GR Supra and handling-focused GR86, alongside high-performance hot hatches – like the rally-inspired GR Yaris, and soon the more practical (but no less potent) GR Corolla – the GR portfolio is looking fairly plump.
There’s still numerous gaps in the product range – some of which have been filled in Japan with everything from GR-tweaked kei cars to minivans. On a global scale though, here at Drive we felt that Toyota’s sports car division needs a trio of actual sports cars – opening the door to a coupe to slot in between the GR86 and GR Supra.
Enter the Celica, an affordable coupe that saw seven generations between 1970 and 2006, and quickly earned a reputation for delivering plenty of enthusiast appeal with an approachable price point.
As with the final-generation Celica, our re-imagined 2022 Celica (imagined by Theophilus Chin) starts with a borrowed Corolla platform – perhaps not the most exciting starting point, but with plenty of tuning potential as part of Toyota’s modular TNGA chassis family.
That modularity opens the door to numerous powertrain options. Again, looking to the past, there’s room for engines from both the Corolla and the Camry, meaning minimum 125kW and 152kW base engine tunes from the donor cars’ 2.0-litre and 2.5-litre engines respectively.
For Australia the 2.5-litre engine would be a great base offering, with the Camry's 2.5-litre hybrid as a 'flagship', tuned to develop at least 170kW – with, hopefully, development room to pair it to a manual and conventional automatic, in place of the Camry's less-exciting 160kW with a CVT.
Being a Celica, and so as not to challenge the outright halo status of Toyota’s rear-wheel drive coupes, front-wheel drive will remain. Front-drive hot cars being a particular joy of their own – plus the Celica’s platform comes ready to run with double-wishbone independent rear suspension.
Rather than tear up the rule book and start from scratch, our eighth-generation Celica picks up where the angular seventh-gen car left off. Similarly low in profile, with an evolution of the triangular headlight from before.
Still a liftback body, still low and sleek, but now featuring the more horizontal elements found on Toyota’s mainstream models.
The slim slit grille harks back to the last Celica, while the front bumper intake draws a link to the current Corolla.
Along the sides there are pumped wheel arches, showing off widened front and rear tracks, with vented front guards, and rising bodyside feature lines and sill panels giving a purposeful sense of motion, even when standing still.
The rear highlights a strut brace-inspired tail-light panel that wraps the rear corners of the car, with LED lighting and vent-styled bumper garnishes emphasising the forward-motion design.
As striking as a new front-wheel-drive Celica could be, it’s just a starting point. The real halo car of a received Celica range would have to be a GR Celica, building on the legend started with the GT-Four Celicas of the fourth, fifth, and sixth-generation models.
For 2022 the GR Celica would take the familiar turbocharged 1.6-litre three-cylinder 'G16E-GTS' engine from the GR Yaris and GR Corolla. Like those flagship models, the Celica would also come with a close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox and variable GR-Four all-wheel drive.
Outputs for the GR Celica can only be range-topping, so we’d like to see the highest output 220kW engine from the GR Corolla, with the 390Nm output from the GRMN Yaris. Similarly, Torsen limited slip differentials front and rear, ‘circuit’ suspension and forged alloy wheels are non-negotiable.
Externally, we identified a range of Celica halo elements we just had to have: the GR-exclusive stepped central air intake, enlarged vents behind the front wheels, the GR Corolla’s trio of functional exhaust tips, an ST205 GT-Four-inspired bonnet scoop and, of course, GR’s iconic Frosted White paint.
Sadly, for the time being, there's no indication Toyota will put a new Celica into production, with the company instead content with the GR86 and GR Supra. We can dream...
