Toyota’s Celica Comeback: What We Want Before More Horsepower

Archival 1988–1990 Toyota Celica GT-Four; not the upcoming Celica. Photo: Toyota.

Velocity Factor's take | September 27, 2026

Toyota bringing back the Celica gives us a reason to pay attention. Whether we'd want to own one comes down to a harder question: will it be a good car to drive, live with and build on?

From our perspective as a performance shop in South Florida, the interesting details are the ones missing from the comeback headlines. How much will it weigh? Will it stay consistent when it's hot? What will a set of tires and brakes cost? And will the chassis be worth getting excited about before anyone touches the boost?

Lead photo: Toyota Celica GT-Four, 1988–1990 archive model. This is not the upcoming Celica. Image courtesy of Toyota's UK media archive, supplied for editorial use.

What Toyota has said, and what remains unsettled

The revival has more behind it than an internet rendering. At Rally Japan in November 2024, Toyota executive Yuki Nakajima said, “We will make the Celica,” according to Best Car's reporting, covered by Car and Driver.

More recently, Autocar reported that Toyota was referring to the car as the Celica Sport and that a Toyota spokesperson confirmed four-wheel drive. Its interview with Gazoo Racing marketing manager Mikio Hayashi also points toward electrification, but leaves important decisions open. Hayashi said Toyota was considering different engine sizes and had not decided between a conventional hybrid and a plug-in hybrid.

There is real hardware behind the engine discussion. In its January 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon announcement, Toyota described the GR Yaris M Concept with a new, under-development 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder mounted behind the cabin. That confirms an engine-development program. It does not establish the production Celica's engine location, output or final powertrain.

We have not found a Toyota production specification sheet or confirmed U.S. price and on-sale date in the sources reviewed for this story. The 400-horsepower estimates and 2028 model-year predictions circulating online should still be read as reporting and forecasts, not showroom specifications. The same goes for assumptions about a manual transmission.

Give it a chassis people want to learn

The MotorTrend column that prompted this discussion looks back at how differently successive Celicas drove. That's a useful reminder: the badge alone never guaranteed the same experience.

We want the new one to feel responsive at ordinary road speeds. Steering that tells you what the front tires are doing. A brake pedal you can meter cleanly. Suspension that controls the body without making every broken patch of pavement a punishment. Those details matter on the drive to work just as much as they do on a good back road.

All-wheel drive could give the Celica its own place alongside Toyota's other performance cars. But the badge on the trunk won't tell us how it behaves. We'd want to know how the system distributes torque, how predictably the car responds near the limit and how much adjustment the driver gets. Those are questions for the finished car, not conclusions we can draw from a prototype photo.

We'd take repeatable performance over a bigger headline number

A turbocharged hybrid sounds promising. Electric assistance can help response, and a compact engine could help packaging. The tradeoffs depend on the finished system: battery mass, cooling requirements, power delivery and how the car behaves as temperatures and battery charge change.

For us, the useful test is whether the car gives you consistent performance through a full track session in Florida heat. We would look at oil and coolant temperatures, intake temperatures, brake feel and any reduction in available power. We would also want to know whether the all-wheel-drive hardware can keep doing its job under sustained load.

These are priorities for a new performance car, not allegations about an unreleased Celica. We'd rather Toyota spend the engineering budget there than chase an output figure owners can only enjoy briefly.

Make the ownership math work

A new Celica needs a clear reason to choose it over a GR86 or GR Corolla. A coupe with all-wheel drive could offer that distinction, provided its weight and price don't push it out of reach of the people interested in driving it.

The purchase price is only the start. Wheel sizes determine tire costs. Brake dimensions and parts availability affect the cost of a track weekend. Service access matters when a car is several years old. Toyota could do enthusiasts a favor by keeping consumables sensible and making replacement parts easy to get.

We'd like a manual option. We also won't dismiss a well-calibrated automatic before driving it. Either way, the controls should respond consistently, and the car should be enjoyable without needing its most aggressive drive mode switched on all the time.

Leave room for owners to make it theirs

As a shop, we'd be interested in alignment range, wheel and tire clearance, brake-service access and useful temperature data before making promises about tuning. A new engine or hybrid system needs proper testing. Nobody should be selling a guaranteed power package for a car whose final specifications aren't public.

A strong factory setup gives owners somewhere sensible to start. Good tires, an alignment suited to the intended use and appropriate brake pads can matter more than rushing into a power increase. That's the approach we'd want to take with a new Celica, once there is an actual car to assess.

We're interested in the comeback. Now we'd like Toyota to show us the weight, cooling capability, driving controls and price. Get those right and the Celica can earn a place in someone's garage even if they have never owned an old one.

If you're building a Toyota you can drive today, our GR86, BRZ and FR-S build guide covers the existing platform. We aren't listing parts or taking reservations for the unreleased Celica.

Sources and reporting notes

Sources checked September 27, 2026. Driving and ownership priorities above are Velocity Factor's opinion. We have not driven the upcoming Celica.