It’s (somewhat) confirmed! Toyota’s executive vice president and chief technology officer Hiroki Nakajima has reportedly announced that the much-beloved Celica is making a return. The executive let slip the tongue-in-cheek remark last weekend during a fan event at Rally Japan, the final round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), according to Best Car.
The interaction started when the publication’s former editor-in-chief Hitoshi Hongo asked Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, “Is the Celica going to be released?” Given that Toyoda was no longer an executive at the company, he threw the question at Nakajima: “There are executives here today, so let’s ask them.”
Nakajima then revealed what had hitherto been the company’s worst-kept secret. “To be honest, there is no sign of it right now. However, there are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica. So…I’m not sure if it’s okay to say this in a public forum, but we’re doing the Celica!”
Toyoda tried to downplay Nakajima’s comments in jest, saying, “Are you okay? There are a lot of difficulties. Best Car wrote [that Toyota is making a Celica], but we shouldn’t believe that.” But Nakajima instead doubled down: “They haven’t said when it will be released, so it could be next year.”
Now, this interaction was obviously meant to be humorous and was entirely in Japanese; as such, the nuances may have been lost in translation and these remarks should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt. But even before this, Toyota had been coyly hinting at the sports car’s revival – the company’s own Toyota Times newsletter has written two articles over the past year that clearly referenced rumours of the Celica’s return, including a retrospective of the car.
The most blatant hint, however, came earlier this month in a newly-released Toyota USA anime, which all-too-briefly listed an eighth-generation Celica alongside a fourth-generation MR2, a third-generation GR86, a sixth-generation GR Supra and a GR GT3.
And what of Nakajima’s comment that the car could be released sometime next year? Well, Toyota announced that its WRC team’s principal Jari-Matti Latvala will be entering the European Historic Rally Championship in his own ST185 Celica – the same one that helped Toyota clinch three consecutive WRC titles from 1992 to 1994. What better way to promote a new Celica than to dovetail it with Latvala’s exploits?
Remember, Toyota already has the right engine to power a new Celica. Earlier this year, the company revealed a new, high-output 2.0 litre turbo four-cylinder mill designed specifically for sports cars. The power plant is being developed to offer significantly greater performance compared to its existing Dynamic Force 2.4 litre unit in the Alphard/Vellfire and various Lexus models, despite being 10% smaller.
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