Car enthusiasts are a quirky bunch. We don’t always love the things you think we’d love. Sure, we admire high-performance cars that set records. But many of us, quietly, get a lot more excited about cars that couldn’t keep up with the high-performance stuff no matter who was driving.
What we love most is a cheap, entry-level car with a sporty edge. Something many could afford. Something some of us did afford when we were just starting out in our driving life. We hold a precious nostalgia for the accessible sports cars of the past; the cheaper, the better. There may be no more beloved cars than the inexpesive sports coupes of our childhood.
With that in mind, a Toyota executive this week said a simple sentence that will light the enthusiast community on fire for the next few years.
“I’m not sure if it’s okay to say this in a public forum, but we’re doing the Celica.”
The news comes (via translation) from the Japanese enthusiast publication Best Car. Toyota Vice President Yuki Nakajima was speaking to a crowd at a World Rally Championship in Japan when he dropped the news, the site says.
For Those Who Don’t Remember – the Celica
Toyota has built some of those record-pushing performance cars over the years. The Celica was never one of them. Instead, it was an affordable, 2-door, rear-wheel drive (RWD) entry point to sports car driving based on the bones of an affordable car.
Early versions were marketed as Mustang competitors, though that was always true in price more than attitude. Mustangs leaned toward muscle car. Celicas veered toward sleek, at least by the boxy standards of 1970s and 1980s cars.
A higher-performance Celica Supra model spun off into the pricier Supra line of sports cars still with us today in the form of the 2025 GR Supra. But the Celica ceased production in 2006 after 36 years.
In recent years, however, automakers have had big hits with retro-styled cars pulling on the heartstrings of enthusiasts. From a reborn Ford Bronco to the return of the Acura Integra, automakers have brought back old nameplates to wide acclaim.
Not Much Info on the Next Generation
We have very little to go on in guessing what a next-generation Celica might look like. That’s because Toyota itself hasn’t decided much.
Nakajima acknowledged, “To be honest, there is no sign of it right now.” But he assured the crowd, “There are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica.”
Toyota already builds one mainstream sports coupe today – the GR86. One logical step would be to turn the next-generation GR86 project into a Celica project. That car was redesigned for the 2022 model year. Its prior generation lasted eight years. So, if we’re right about that, a replacement won’t appear anytime soon.
But selling a Celica and a GR86 side-by-side would cannibalize sales. So, we don’t expect Toyota to build both at the same time.
An All-New Engine Seems Likely
Nakajima told the crowd a story that offered one further hint that the project could take some time to develop.
“At this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, I asked Morizo [a nickname for Toyota Chairman Toyoda Akio], ‘Which is your favorite engine, the one you would like to leave to the next generation?’”
Toyoda cited engines built by Mazda and Subaru, not Toyota.
“This inspired all of Toyota’s engine developers,” Nakajima said. “We will create an engine that Morizo will want to leave behind.”
Designing a new engine from scratch could mean the Celica project will take years.
So, enthusiasts should be patient. There’s good news: Toyota won’t rush the project and bring out a rebadged GR86 called Celica.
