Toyota is clearly up to something. The internet has spiralled into a frenzy after videos of a mysterious prototype testing for the 2027 World Rally Championship (WRC27) season were posted online, wearing the iconic red-white-black Toyota camouflage. Because this is no mere GR Yaris derivative – instead, the car in question is a low-slung, two-door coupe with a very wide haunch at the back. But what exactly is that?
If we had to guess, we think this might truly be our first look at the heavily rumoured next-generation Toyota Celica – Well, a race derivative of it, at least. Why? Well, because a Celica for rallying just makes perfect sense, given Toyota’s dominant rally legacy throughout the late 1980s and 90s.
But there’s also been endless murmurs about a Celica revival, never mind Gazoo Racing President Tomoya Takahashi literally confirming that a genuine midship project is in development. The prototype’s unique proportions, too, suggest a midship layout rather than an engine in front of the driver.
According to reports from Dirtfish, the upcoming WRC27 regulations introduce a new level of bodywork flexibility, allowing manufacturers to implement diverse designs, as long as it fits onto a standardised spaceframe chassis. This means Toyota isn’t restricted to the GR Yaris’s hatchback shape any more, giving them the perfect excuse to bring back a low-slung coupe.
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The rules allow for “bespoke designs” to be used, and are no longer required to be “recognisable” to mass-market cars. But for marketing purposes, Toyota would most likely want to base their designs on a car it can actually sell. The problem, though, is that when you look at the showroom floor, nothing in Toyota’s current road car lineup matches the sleek, low-slung silhouette of this prototype.
Toyota could have easily used a body we already recognise, like the current GR Yaris. Instead, this “skin” feels less like a random racing exercise and more like a deliberate preview of a model that has yet to be officially revealed.
While Toyota is keeping the model name under wraps, Toyota Technical Director Tom Fowler has confirmed the car is very real. “At this point in time, we are already running our prototype test car,” Fowler told Dirtfish, revealing that the mule has already completed over 2,000 kilometres of testing.
To comply with the new WRC27 rules, this challenger will likely swap the current 1.6-litre four-cylinder for a three-cylinder unit adapted from the GR Yaris Rally2, targeting around 290 hp sent to all four wheels via a five-speed sequential gearbox.
We don’t quite know yet how the final rally car (and the eventual road car… hopefully) will look like, but perhaps the Toyota FT-Se Concept from three years ago could give us a rough idea. While originally presented as a vision for an electric sports car, its aggressive aero and proportions look somewhat similar to this new WRC27 mule.
If Toyota is indeed using the WRC27 prototype as a high-speed laboratory (and marketing board) for the Celica, the “Three Brothers” of the Supra, Celica, and MR2 might truly, finally, be heading for a long-awaited reunion.
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