Report: Toyota to campaign new Celica for 2027 WRC season
Words: Andrew Sluys
Toyota’s reborn Celica might be the worst kept secret in the automotive world — but that’s not a bad thing.
While we don’t know when it will be revealed, or what it will look like, we do know that it will follow GR’s rally-bred ethos.
For this reason, it comes as little surprise to learn that Toyota is planning to use this new Celica as the platform.
The news was leaked by Carlos Sainz’s (Senior) co-driver Luis Moya, who mentioned how the Celica is part of the 2027 program.
Speaking to the Spanish Rally Journal, Moya said:
“We need to be patient about next year. At the moment, only a few teams have been confirmed, so we have to wait and see what happens.
“Next year will be a bit of a dull year, but we already know that the Toyota team is going to have a Celica.
“They are going to have a Celica as their Rally1 car, and they will have a Rally2 car as well.”
While some might question Toyota’s reasoning for not using its GR Yaris, which has already found success on the world stage, the Celica’s WRC chops run a lot deeper.
The much-loved Celica GT-Four topped the championship podium four times throughout the nineties, in 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1994.
Toyota will look to build upon this rally legacy with the new Celica, which will likely use a similar drivetrain to what the GR Yaris currently has.
This pairs a 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine producing 221kW with an all-wheel drive system.
Either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic transmission are available with the production version GR Yaris, but the WRC version uses a five-speed sequential unit.
While it’s yet to be announced when this new Celica will be unveiled in full, the WRC season kicks off in January next year, so it can’t be too far away.
