Stand-by for the return of the Toyota Celica.

Just as the muscular Supra was bought back from the dead, and will be totally renewed sometime in 2027 for showroom sales, a new-age Celica is now firmly on the agenda at Toyota.

It is expected to resume the original Celica formula as a good looking two-door coupe, mostly likely with a showroom preview next year.

Everything points to a hybrid drivetrain, not a full electric vehicle.

Confirmation of the Celica plan can from an unlikely inside source at Toyota’s WRC rally team in Finland.

It has just announced a double-edged attack on next year’s world champion, splitting the action between a new GR Yaris and a GR Celica, both wearing Gazoo Racing badges and with a full competition package including all-wheel drive and turbocharged engine. So it will field twin three-car teams.

“The two squads will compete as Toyota Racing, debuting the GR Celica Rally1 car, and Gazoo Racing Toyota, campaigning the new 2027 GR Yaris Rally1 car,” Toyota said in a statement.

“The Toyota Racing drivers will be entrusted with the new GR Celica Rally1 car, returning one of the most iconic names in Toyota rally history to the WRC. Its line-up will be led into the 2027 season by the defending drivers’ and co-drivers’ champions, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.”

There is no technical detail yet on the Celica, as either a road or rally car, and no official pictures despite the growing number of ‘artist impression’ shots produced since rumours first began about a new-age Celica.

The car will continue a history which stretches back to the 1970s, when the original Celica was rear-wheel drive, through generations of front-wheel drive coupes that were also hugely upgraded with turbocharging and all-wheel drive to challenge for the World Rally Championship in the 1980s.