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This camouflaged Toyota rally prototype may be our first glimpse at the styling of the reborn – now mid-engined – Celica sports car.
A mysterious two-door Toyota Gazoo Racing rally car spotted testing in Europe may be our first look at the long-mooted mid-engined revival of the Toyota Celica sports car.
Reports out of Japan over the past 18 months have claimed Toyota is working on a mid-engined, all-wheel-drive performance car to wear the Celica badge for 2027, two decades after the final MR2 was built.
Now images captured by Marcio Pereira and posted to social media show a two-door rally car wrapped in Toyota Gazoo Racing's signature red and black camouflage livery testing on a gravel rally stage in Portugal.
Rally specialist website DirtFish claims it has verified the images – and associated video – of the mystery prototype as Toyota's 2027 World Rally Championship entry, rather than being AI-generated.
The large air intakes and bonnet vents on the prototype suggest it is front-engined like today's GR Yaris – the basis of Toyota's current WRC entry – rather than mid-engined.
However, WRC rules allow manufacturers to place bodywork from any car over a defined spaceframe chassis, which places a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine up front, and carries pre-defined dimensions.
It means the road-going Celica can be mid-engined, and the rally version front-engined, but with the same styling reflective of the road car's layout.
However, it's unclear how close this prototype is to the final rally car to compete in the WRC next year, and its similarities to the production Celica.
The Celica is one of the most successful WRC nameplates to be fielded by the Japanese car giant, winning the driver's championship in 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1994, as well as manufacturers' titles in 1993 and 1994.
It exited rallying at the end of the 1990s, when the iconic turbocharged, all-wheel-drive GT-Four made way for a front-wheel-drive-only, seventh-generation model.
The reborn Celica will be a very different machine, reportedly planned to adopt a mid-engined layout akin to the defunct MR2, but with the added traction of all-wheel drive.
Japanese publication Best Car claims it will use Toyota's next-generation 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing more than 300kW and 550Nm, without electrified assistance.
The outlet claims it is planned to be revealed as the GR Celica at the 2027 Tokyo Auto Salon in January, before arriving in showrooms in 2028.
It aligns with the planned competition debut of the World Rally Championship version.
"At this point in time we are already running our prototype test car," Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC technical director Tom Fowler told DirtFish.
"The design team are concentrating on all of the feedback that’s coming from that car and working around issues and improvements.
"The original target was to start running the car in 2026. We met that target. The car has been running for a few tests already and it’s definitely done more than 2000 kilometres. I can’t tell you the exact figure."
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
