The new Celica is nearly here! And a WRC version will compete next year

Toyota has once again confirmed that a new Celica is coming. Well, it hasn’t explicitly mentioned a road car this time around, but it has announced that a Rally1 version will compete in the World Rally Championship next year. Hurrah!

That’s it wearing some natty camouflage up above. Looks pretty cool with its classic coupe shape, chunky rear arches and a boxy rear wing, too.

And of course, we’d expect it to morph into a proper GR sports car at some point in the near future, because executive vice president Hiroki Nakajima told TG at Le Mans earlier this year that “through motorsport activity, we would like to provide a better car”.

There will certainly be plenty of activity at the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team HQ in Jyväskylä, Finland next year too, because the company has also announced plans to run two separate teams in WRC.

Toyota Racing will field three GR Celicas with the top three drivers in the championship last season all at the helm. That’s Elfyn Evans, Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari. The separate Gazoo Racing Toyota team (this won’t be confusing at all) will run three more 2027 GR Yaris Rally1 cars, with Ott Tänak and Takamoto Katsuta racing all year, and double world champion Kalle Rovanperä returning for selected events.

The 2027 Rally1 regs were designed to reduce the cost of the cars by more than 50 per cent, so it’s great to see that Toyota is using the money saved to just enter more cars.

What do we think will come out on top – Yaris or Celica? Oh, and to celebrate the return of the latter, here’s one of the greatest rally snaps of all time…