Toyota confirmed it will compete in the 2027 World Rally Championship with a new GR Celica rally car, fielded by a team called Toyota Racing alongside Toyota Gazoo Racing's GR Yaris. Both cars will run in the Rally1 class on a new shared control chassis with adapted turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four engines, meaning the two cars will be mechanically identical and differ only in bodywork.
The GR Celica will debut as a race car in 2027, but Toyota plans a production version years later with minimal mechanical carryover to the rally car. The road-going Celica remains in early development stages.
Rumors point to multiple possible powertrains and layouts for the production car. Some reports suggest a mid-engine platform also expected to underpin an MR2 return, though Gazoo Racing head Tomoya Takahashi stated this mid-engine platform has completed only the first of four development stages and won't be ready until closer to 2030. That platform would use a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four codenamed G20E producing over 400 horsepower. Other reports indicate a front-engine setup more aligned with the original Celica's heritage, or possibly an all-wheel-drive hybrid, but no powertrain details have been confirmed.
Camouflaged prototypes of the rally car tested this year, though it remains unclear how much bodywork will transfer to production.