Celicas


The Toyota Celica

To date there have been seven generations of the hugely successful Toyota Celica, starting with the Generation 1 released in 1970. Throughout this history, the Celica has been a great alternative to the company’s slightly less expensive Corolla range, and has competed well against the best offerings of rival manufacturers.

This site offers some information about the history of the Celica range, from its earliest roots to the current Gen 7 coupe. We also look forward to news about the cars future development; will there be a generation model to follow the current car, or are Toyota about to drop the car in the light of environmental legislation?

At one stage in its life, the Celica led to the development of one of Toyota’s other fine grand tourers – the Celica Supra, which later became a model range in its own right.

Recently, the Supra range came to an end, and the belief is that the Celica and the MR2 will be joining it. Toyota seem set to release any successors to the Celica, Supra or MR2 under their prestige Lexus brand.

Other Information
Celica – Generation 1
The original Celica was first introduced by Toyota in 1970, and despite its age, many fantastic examples still exist today. The car offered the buyers a much more affordable option to the company’s already successful GT2000.

Celica – Generation 2
The second generation Celica replaced the Gen1 in early 1978, but had a realtively short production life, being replaced by the Gen3 after just four years. Even in that relatively short time, there were two releases (series) of the Gen2 called Series A and Series B.

Celica – Generation 3
The Gen2 was replaced by the Gen3 in 1982 successful and varied life. Coupe and Liftback variants of the new model were offered with a range of engine sizes.

Celica – Generation 4
The fourth Generation Celica was released in 1986 and was produced through to the end of that decade. For the first time, the car featured front wheel drive instead of the rear wheel drive of the earlier models.

Celica – Generation 5
The fifth Generation Celica replaced Generation 4 at the beginning of the 1990s. The new car was a development of the Gen4 but with a much more rounded shape. Like its predecessor, the car was primarily offered in FWD configuration, but was also available as a 4WD turbo in the form of the GT4 (or ST185).

Celica – Generation 6
The sixth generation Celica arrive in 1994 to replace and continued until the end of the 90s before it was replaced by the completely new Generation 7. For some, this is the best generation of the Celica as it was the most recent to include the GT4 range in its numbers.

Celica – Generation 7
The current (and possibly last) Celica was introduced in 2000, and was a completely new vehicle. At launch the car featured an all new engine in the form of the 1.8 litre 1ZZ-FE and in 2002 this was joined by the even better 1.8 litre 2ZZ-GE which produced around 190bhp.

Generation 7 Celica 190
My first Celica was a Generation 7 revision 1 which was registered in May 2001. It was my first Toyota and since then I’ve purchased several others as I was so impressed with the reliablity and performance of the car.