CELICA RETURNS! Toyota exec confirms coupe's comeback and talks next GR86

A senior Toyota executive speaking at this past weekend's 2024 Rally Japan is understood to have confirmed comeback plans for the Celica name.

The confirmation emerged unexpectedly during a Q&A session, when Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda was asked directly about the possibility of reviving the Celica.

Toyoda deflected the question – asked by Best Car editor Jin Hongo – to his Executive Vice President Yuki Nakajima, who is understood to have responded with the following, which we've translated here with Google Translate.

"To be honest, there is no sign of it right now. However, there are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica. So...I'm not sure if it's okay to say this in a public forum, but we're doing the Celica!"

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Above and top of story: Speculative renderings produced by Japan's Best Car.

It's no formal announcement, but this is nonetheless the first time Toyota has offered any official comment confirming plans for a new eight-generation Celica.

Speaking further – as he often does and as so few of his fellow Japanese automotive executives ever do – Toyoda tempered expectations by pointing out potential challenges in the development process, advising not to assume specifics just yet.

After this surprising statement, Chairman Toyoda followed up with some banter towards Nakajima and the audience together:

“Is this okay? There are a lot of challenges. Best Car wrote that Toyota is making the Celica, but you shouldn’t believe that,” to which Vice President Nakajima humorously replied, “I didn’t say when it will be released—it might even be next year.”

We wonder: Will it be front-wheel drive like its 1985-onwards generations, though, or return to its earlier rear-wheel-drive form?

We'll look forward to an announcement – hopefully in the new year.

Questions about the next GR86

The event also included audience-driven Q&A, where fans asked about the next-generation GR86.

Questions ranged from the possibility of a turbocharged engine to whether the car would retain a rear-wheel-drive layout.

Kazuya Oshima, a racing driver and team leader for ORC ROOKIE Racing, confirmed that development work for the next GR86 was ongoing, particularly focusing on track performance.

Toyoda stirred the pot again, asking Nakajima to take the microphone once more, seemingly leading him towards...

...the future of Toyota’s engines

Reflecting on Toyota’s engine development strategy, Nakajima referenced Toyoda’s previous remarks at the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon, where the chairman expressed admiration for Subaru’s boxer engines and Mazda’s rotary engines.

Nakajima: “At this year’s (2024) Tokyo Auto Salon, Mr. Morizo (Chairman Akio Toyoda) was asked, ‘What’s your favourite engine? What engine do you want to leave for the next generation?’ He answered, ‘Subaru’s horizontally opposed engine and Mazda’s rotary engine.’

"But there wasn’t a Toyota engine! This fired up all of Toyota’s engine developers. We are determined to create an engine that Morizo would want to leave behind. It’s not about whether it can or cannot be released or whether it will or won’t be preserved. We will release it!"

While the Japanese are known to be capable of enthusiastic conversation, you'll rarely see any of their executives provide such detailed comments to western media – so we'll have to take the Best Car team's word that it went quite like that...