In an interview published by Best Car magazine in October 2023, President Akio Toyoda admitted that he had asked senior management to revive this legendary sports car. Last year, president Cuneji Sato publicly announced his desire to bring back a popular model called the Celica. As if that wasn't enough, the "Cela Mk8" briefly appeared on the board in a recent episode of the Toyota anime series Grip.
Now the same magazine claims to have learned directly from Toyota that the new Celica is already in the development phase. A respected Japanese magazine asked Akia Toyoda if the long-awaited sports car is making a comeback. He declined to officially confirm the claim, but referred the question to Hiroki Nakajima, the company's chief technology officer. Nakajima replied, "We're going to make a Cell."
With the whole thing taking place at the Toyota Stadium as part of events on the sidelines of Rally Japan 2024, Nakajima may not have felt the situation was right for an official announcement, so he added: "I wonder if it's right for me to say that."
The audience wanted to know from the leaders of Toyota if things are moving on the successor of the GR86 model, but did not get an unequivocal answer. However, they confirmed at Toyota that they are developing a new generation of 1,5- and 8-liter four-cylinder engines, which will also receive forced charging. The animated series also features the aforementioned Celica Mk86, the GR3 Mk6, the Supra Mk2 and even the MR4 Mk3, and the list ends with the GR GTXNUMX model, which is said to be the racing equivalent of the Lexus road version called the LFR.
