Toyota officials have been hinting at the Celica's return for years, and now it's finally happening. Toyota today confirmed that it will field a new sports car called the GR Celica in the World Rally Championship. The car will be ready for the 2027 season, when new regulations aimed at making top-level rallying more accessible to teams take effect.

Camouflaged prototypes for the GR Celica rally car have been testing in public view for months, but a road-going version is also in the works. Its debut, however, could still be some way off.

Road And Rally Cars Will Be Very Different

Although the GR Celica rally car is just months away from its competition debut, the road car still has a long development process ahead. That's because the rally car uses a new control chassis that will be common to all teams competing in the revised Rally1 premier category of the 2027 World Rally Championship, which has sped up its development.

Teams will also use engines derived from those in the current Rally2 category, specifically turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-fours. Toyota will field two teams in Rally1 next year: Toyota Racing, which will compete with the new GR Celica, and Gazoo Racing, which will campaign the GR Yaris.

This all means that the GR Celica rally car, while providing a glimpse at the styling of the new Celica road car's design, will provide little in the way of details about the road car's mechanicals. The road car has been rumored to ride on a new mid-engine platform currently in the works, while the rally car, like all Rally1 cars next year, will mount its engine up front. But that's just a small piece of a very confusing puzzle.

What Do We Know About The Celica Road Car?

Gazoo Racing boss Tomoya Takahashi said earlier this year that the new mid-engine platform was only at the first of four development stages. He suggested the showroom launch may not happen until closer to the end of the decade.

Part of that lengthy development process stems from difficulties Toyota has encountered during development of the platform, which the automaker has been doing so using modified GR Yaris body shells, which recently matured into a full race-spec car in Japan's Super Taikyu racing series.

The automaker is also developing a new turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four for the platform, code-named G20E, which is claimed to deliver around 450 horsepower in standard form. A milder naturally aspirated version could also find its way into a future GR 86.

Interestingly, the new mid-engine platform could also have applications beyond the Celica, potentially paving the way for another Toyota sports car revival. That car could be a modern MR2, meaning Toyota may be preparing to bring back both nameplates. The race prototype pictured above has a significantly sleeker profile than the GR Celica Rally1 car, hinting at a possible production design for the MR2.

All that said, the Celica hasn't officially been confirmed as a mid-engine car, and historically, the Celica nameplate was front-engined only.

CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters

There are still plenty of unanswered questions about the new Celica, including its final layout, powertrain and price. But Toyota clearly intends to keep affordable sports cars alive alongside higher-end offerings like the GR GT and a sixth-generation Supra, and it remains committed to using motorsport as a test bed for these performance road cars. The confirmation of the Celica nameplate will have fans frothing with excitement, but we urge patience, as a road car could still be some time away.