Latest News
Cars in Taylor Swift Music VideosThe Toyota Celica GT-Four is JDM Rally Royalty
This 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four is both a rally car legend and a Japan-only rarity now available for the discerning collector.Toyota Celica, Then and Now
Rumors have been swirling for over a year that Toyota might, just might have plans to bring back the Celica. It’s been speculated that the 2023 mid-engine concept, the FT-Se, would, given its engine placement, mark the return of the MR2, another beloved but now defunct Toyota nameplate. Now it looks like it’s the Celica, not the MR2 that’s making a return. Late year Toyota Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima made explicit their goal of bringing the Celica back to showrooms. New details are percolating up and enticingly include a midship 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder (the significance of which you’ll read below).
To illustrate why Toyota fans are so excited about the prospective return of the Celica, we dug around Carsforsale.com to find the best example listed on our website. Not only did we find an exceptionally clean sixth-generation example, but it happened to be a rare JDM import version, the homologation special Celica GT-Four. The Celica GT-Four became a legend within the pantheon of Japanese performance cars and a trailblazing and notorious WRC rally car competitor.
Sixth-Gen Celica Background
The Celica nameplate runs all the way back to 1970 and sold as Toyota’s version of the Ford Mustang (with the late 1970s Celica even sporting triple taillights). By the time we get to the heyday of Japanese sports cars in the late 1980s and 1990s, the Celica was a well-established fixture in Toyota’s lineup, selling well internationally and at home in Japan and its fourth- and fifth-generation cars making waves in WRC.
At the time, the WRC was dominated by European teams like Lancia and Audi. The Celica GT-Four arrived in 1986 equipped with four-wheel drive and a 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder, the 3S-GTE, making 190 horsepower. And it didn’t take long for the car to make itself known, claiming its first WRC victory at Rally Australia in 1989. Where Japan, Europe, and Oceania got the GT-Four the North American version was officially dubbed the All-Trac Turbo.
The fifth-generation Celica GT-Four debuted in 1994 as a homologation of the WRC rally car. Homologation rules for Group A called for a minimum of 2,500 cars to be built for the road. 3S-GTE motor, still 2.0L, had steadily gained horsepower and was now putting out 235 horsepower, or in the case of the Japanese version, 251 horse. The US Celica had to settle for ST and GT trims with lower output from engines shared with the Camry and Corolla. The GT-Four featured a number of modifications for competition that included upgraded brakes and a revised suspension, as well as a weight-saving aluminum hood.
The fifth-generation Celica GT-Four debuted in 1994 as a homologation of the WRC rally car. Homologation rules for Group A called for a minimum of 2,500 cars to be built for the road. 3S-GTE motor, still 2.0L, had steadily gained horsepower and was now putting out 235 horsepower, or in the case of the Japanese version, 251 horse. The US Celica had to settle for ST and GT trims with lower output from engines shared with the Camry and Corolla. The GT-Four featured a number of modifications for competition that included upgraded brakes and a revised suspension, as well as a weight-saving aluminum hood.
The sixth-generation Celica GT-Four rally car famously executed one of the most ingenious cheats in WRC history. Rules called for all cars to carry a turbo restrictor plate to limit horsepower. Not to take no for an answer, Toyota racing engineers designed their restrictor plate with a subtle bypass that opened 0.2-inches when fully bolted down. The modification added roughly 50 horsepower worth of boost and had Toyota poised to take the 1995 WRC championship. Instead, the cheat was discovered, and the team received a one-year ban. Racing officials marveled at the ingenious engineering of the bypass, commenting that the same level of effort within the rules would have likely earned Toyota a team win.
Despite, or perhaps because of the controversy, the Celica GT-Four became a favorite as one of the feature cars in the 1995 Sega Rally Championship video game.
This JDM Classic
All this makes this 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four a spectacular find. It is both a rare JDM version we never got here in the States and a rally car legend. The example we found is astonishingly clean for a 30-year-old car as condition inside and out evidences great care and attention given by prior owners. The car carries 85,354 miles.
Under the hood is the Japanese-spec 3S-GTE 2.0L four-cylinder engine equipped with the CT20B win-entry turbo combining for a touch over 250 horsepower which runs through a five-speed manual to all four wheels. The car is finished in Silver with a grey and blue interior with ‘90s graphics scribbling across the well-bolstered cloth seats.
The striking, now classic looks of this 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four are statement-making enough, even before you touch the throttle. This example is priced at a reasonable $41,900.
