In what is definitely the day’s biggest rally news, Toyota announced that, for the 2027 WRC season, they will be campaigning two teams with two different cars. Or at least two different car bodies.
Gazoo Racing will be running the GR Yaris Rally1, driven by former WRC champion Ott Tanak, WRC race winner Takamoto Katsuta, and multiple former WRC champion Kalle Rovanperä in a part-time program. Meanwhile, Toyota Racing will be running the GR Celica Rally1 with current WRC champion Elfyn Evans, WRC champion runner-up Oliver Solberg, and 3rd-place WRC finisher Sami Pajari.
Yes, that’s an absolutely stacked lineup.
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While Toyota has been very publicly testing a two-door body on their 2027 WRC mule, Toyota has not until now confirmed the vehicle would be called a Celica. However, they threw a bit of a curveball when announcing that they would run both the Celica and the Yaris in the WRC, where previously the smart money was just on the Celica replacing the Yaris as their WRC car.
Wait, They’re Campaigning Two Different Cars?
Yes. Of course, campaigning two cars means that one of the teams may have a car advantage. To prevent that, Toyota claims that the cars are the same mechanically and that only their bodies differ. Toyota also claims that the two bodies have the same aerodynamic performance, so if you take them at their word, neither car should have an advantage.
This is possible because the 2027 WRC regulations enforce specific drag and downforce windows on the vehicles instead of strictly regulating shape. It is an approach similar to what is used in sports car racing, where the regulations focus much more on the aerodynamic result produced by the body rather than the aerodynamic techniques utilized by the body.
So Are We Getting a New Celica?
Most likely, but that is not yet confirmed since Toyota did not actually announce that the Celica will be coming back for purchase, merely that they will be racing a version of it in the WRC. However, the rules of win on Sunday, sell on Monday strongly suggest that Toyota will likely be offering a Celica for sale sometime in the future. How far in the future, though, is an open question.
The Celica has a storied history. Starting as a Japanese take on the Ford Mustang, it has evolved at various points of its life into a cruiser, an AWD rally fighter, an underpowered sporty economy car, an Integra competitor, and even a Supra.
The two generations of Celica GT-Four, which were legendary turbocharged AWD homologation specials, are especially relevant here as Toyota is calling this Celica a GR Celica. Toyota currently sells the GR Yaris and the GR Corolla, both of which are campaigned as rally cars in various series and offered for sale as turbocharged AWD street cars. Might the Celica follow them down that same path? Is Toyota crazy enough as a company to sell three rally-derived vehicles at the same time? Stay tuned.
Top graphic images: Toyota
Did I read somewhere that the Celica was mid-engined? Or going to be? I’ve been seeing various unknown sites talking about new Celica and MR2 for some time, nothing official.
As the owner of a GR Corolla and 90 Celica GTS (former race car) I’m waiting.
Considering the GR Yaris and GR Corolla are both getting long in the tooth, the road going GR Celica could just be a replacement instead of a Gen 2. Toyota just spent a ton of money tooling up an additional production line to make GR Corollas only for the North American market, so I’d wager we will get gen 2 of the GR Corolla regardless of its name.
I love my GRC, it’s the most fun and alive feeling hot hatch on the market currently.
These will be great to see flying through the hills of Tennessee in August!
https://www.wrc.com/en/events/wrc-rally-us-2027
that camo’d side profile looks really strange in proportion, it’s too short.
Not if it’s a small SUV!
/s (or is it?)
The camo is doing some weird things with the flared fenders. Then there is the body roll making the wheel openings look extra empty.
So stoked, this is fantastic timing with WRC and ARA seeing such growth lately, especially here in north america. Would love to see more rally coverage on The Autopian!
“…an AWD rally fighter, an underpowered sporty economy car, an Integra competitor, and even a Supra.”
If you’re nutty enough – and have a few years to wait – it can even be a wildly modified Mini:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hCPODjJO7s
With Rex Manning!
I was sort of under the impression that the new WRC rules were essentially turning them into silhouette cars so any connection with a road going Celica is pretty tenuous. Also as part of that re: “claims to be mechanically similar” don’t the rules pretty much mandate that they are mechanically similar?
Correct, these are tube-framed silhouette cars using the exact same underpinnings and powertrains. Now the rules do allow for Rally 2 cars to be converted to Rally 1 cars like what Ford/M-Sport will be running and those will be much closer to a production based car than these ever will be.