Toyota Celica Returns for 2027 WRC: What's Confirmed and What's Just Rumor
Toyota will race a GR Celica Rally1 in the 2027 WRC. A road car is promised in words only, and the rumored specs remain unconfirmed.
The Toyota Celica is officially back. Toyota Gazoo Racing will race a GR Celica Rally1 in the 2027 World Rally Championship, the first time the name has appeared on a works rally car since the 1990s. What Toyota has not done is announce a Celica you can buy. There is no production car, no price, no engine spec, and no date.
That gap is the whole story, and it matters more to American readers than usual: the WRC returns to the U.S. next August, so the Celica will race on gravel in Tennessee and Kentucky before anyone can park one in a driveway. Here is what is confirmed, what Toyota has said, what is only reported, and why I think the company is moving carefully.
What Toyota has confirmed
Toyota Gazoo Racing announced its 2027 plan on November 3. The World Rally Team will split into two factory squads run from the same base in Jyväskylä, Finland, according to the team's release:
- Toyota Racing will run three GR Celica Rally1 cars for Elfyn Evans, the 2026 world champion, Oliver Solberg, and Sami Pajari.
- GAZOO Racing Toyota will run three 2027 GR Yaris Rally1 cars for Ott Tänak, Takamoto Katsuta, and Kalle Rovanperä, who will contest a partial season.
- Both cars are built to the same new Rally1 rules and are set to have equal power and performance. Toyota plans to enter up to six factory cars per rally.
- Homologation of both cars is due before the end of 2026. Liveries and further details come before the season starts.
The rules are what make a second body possible. The FIA's WRC27 regulations, approved in December 2024, cap the cost of a car at €345,000, which the FIA says is more than half below the current formula. A common safety cell can wear bodywork from almost any scaled production car, and the FIA says bespoke concept designs are allowed too. In plain terms, a rally Celica does not require a road Celica.
Same car underneath, different job
Toyota has been unusually frank about why it is running two names. Technical director Tom Fowler told DirtFish that the rules allow a variant model as long as the main mechanical parts stay identical, and that the team saw a chance to "use this as a marketing tool." Speaking to Autosport, Fowler said the body shape and aerodynamics are the only differences, while team principal Jari-Matti Latvala said the lower cost of the new cars lets Toyota run more of them on the same budget. Autosport also reported that the idea came from Akio Toyoda.
In my view, that candor is useful. A marketing tool is exactly what a halo name is for. The question is what Toyota wants to market. A WRC program can promote a model that already exists, as the GR Yaris does. Or it can build demand for a model that does not exist yet. With the Celica, Toyota is doing the second, and it has chosen not to say so.
What Toyota has said about a road-going Celica
The on-record statements are real, but none of them is a product announcement:
- November 2024, Rally Japan: Asked on stage whether Toyota was making a Celica, executive Hiroki Nakajima said it was, while admitting the car had no shape yet. Autocar reported the line as "We're making the Celica!" He added that Toyota had not said when development would start. Chairman Akio Toyoda, on the same stage, declined to answer the question himself.
- January 2025, Tokyo Auto Salon: Toyota showed the GR Yaris M Concept, a mid-engined test car with the new 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder known internally as G20E. Toyota did not publish output figures, and the car was not called a Celica.
- Spring 2026, interview with Autocar: Gazoo Racing marketing manager Mikio Hayashi told the magazine that a 1.6-liter engine cannot meet emissions rules for a road car, so a 2.0-liter is under consideration. As relayed by other outlets, he also referred to the car as the Celica Sport with all-wheel drive and said the type of hybrid was undecided.
- June 2026, Le Mans: Executive vice president Hiroki Nakajima told Top Gear that Toyota wants to use motorsport to provide a better car. That is a philosophy, not a confirmation of a production model.
What's been reported, but not confirmed
Treat everything in this section as unconfirmed. Toyota has not commented on any of it.
- Engine and drivetrain: Japan's Best Car magazine reported in 2024 that a Celica would use a 2.0-liter turbo with close to 400 hp and Toyota's GR-Four all-wheel drive, with a debut at Tokyo Auto Salon 2025. That debut did not happen.
- Platform and gearboxes: In August 2026, Carscoops, citing Autocar, reported a link to the next Corolla's platform, a hybridized G20E with about 400 hp, all-wheel drive, and a choice of six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic. Carscoops speculated about a 2028 model year; Toyota has given no timing.
- Styling: A camouflaged two-door rally prototype tested in Portugal earlier this year. Motor1 and Autocar both read its proportions as a coupe rather than a Yaris, but a rally body is not a road car design.
- MR2: Akio Toyoda has spoken about reviving the Supra, Celica, and MR2 together, and the mid-engined GR Yaris M Concept fed MR2 reports. A new MR2 remains reports only.
Why Toyota is being careful in America
Toyota has done this twice already. The GR Yaris exists because the WRC needed a road car to homologate, and the GR Corolla brought that hardware to the U.S., where the Yaris was never sold. In both cases the rally program came first and the road car paid for it in showrooms. The Celica could follow that path, but the new rules remove the obligation, and that is the key difference.
The U.S. sports car lineup also makes the decision harder. The GR Supra is gone from dealer lots after production ended in March, which leaves the GR86 and GR Corolla as Toyota's affordable performance cars here, with the far pricier GR GT flagship coming above them. A Celica would have to sit between the GR86 and the GR Corolla without stealing either one's buyers. I'd argue that is a bigger reason for silence than engineering. If the reported six-speed manual survives, it would also join a shrinking list of new cars you can still buy with three pedals.
A short Celica timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Celica goes on sale in the U.S. |
| 1978 | U.S. sales peak at 167,000 for the model year |
| 1990 | Carlos Sainz wins the WRC drivers' title in a Celica GT-Four |
| 1992 | Sainz takes his second title in the new GT-Four |
| 1993 | Juha Kankkunen wins the drivers' title; Toyota wins its first manufacturers' title |
| 1994 | Didier Auriol and Toyota win both titles |
| 1995 | Toyota is excluded from the season and banned for 12 months over illegal modifications |
| 2005 | U.S. sales end with the 2005 model year |
| 2027 | GR Celica Rally1 enters the WRC |
In the U.S., the all-wheel-drive turbo Celica was sold as the All-Trac Turbo rather than the GT-Four. Toyota Motor Sales said in 2004 that the Celica and MR2 were being dropped because newer models inside and outside Toyota had overtaken them, as reported by The Japan Times.
What we don't know yet
- Whether a road-going Celica has been approved for production at all.
- Its engine, output, hybrid type, transmission, and platform.
- Whether it would be sold in the U.S., and at what price.
- When, or where, Toyota would reveal it.
What's next
The GR Celica Rally1 is due to be homologated by the end of the year, with its livery revealed before the WRC season opens at the Rallye Monte-Carlo in late January. Tokyo Auto Salon, also in January, is where Toyota showed the GR Yaris M Concept, which makes it a plausible stage for any road car news. Closer to home, our LA Auto Show preview covers what Toyota is expected to show later this month. We will update this page when Toyota says more.
