I love sports cars, but no company out there makes the exact kind of sports car that I would want to actually buy and live with in Los Angeles. Toyota just got extremely close, though with its latest SEMA show car, the GR86 Rally Legacy Concept. It has the turbocharged engine and all-wheel-drive system from the GR Corolla, and a fantastic Castrol throwback livery and styling upgrades as a call back to the coolest ’90s Celica rally cars.
Toyota says the GR Corolla’s turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder motor fit in the GR86‘s engine bay and transmission tunnel, as did the all-wheel-drive system, but the swap necessitated a custom front subframe and engine mounts. The powerplant has a performance intercooler and oil cooler, and a racing ECU. The GR86 Rally makes the same 300 horsepower and 272 pound-feet of torque, but Toyota says “there is the potential to increase these numbers with further tuning.”
The AWD swap required the axles, wheel hubs and spindles be taken from the GR Corolla, and the Rally has coilovers and custom control arms at all four corners. Also brought over from the GR Corolla is the rear differential and housing, which “…maintains factory gear ratios, electronics functionality, and power distribution.” Instead of the GR Corolla’s six-speed manual or new 8-speed automatic transmission, it seems the GR86 Rally has a sequential racing transmission.
Possibly my favorite rally car of all time is the ST205 Toyota Celica GT-Four that was introduced in 1994 — you may remember it as the car that was banned from the 1995 World Rally Championship season for having illegal turbo restrictor bypasses. While I prefer the ST205’s funny four-eyes front end, the ST185 GT-Four that preceded it in the early ‘90s also competed in WRC with the same white, red and green Castrol livery, and that’s what Toyota is imitating with the GR86 Rally.
Its main paint is Halo White, with red and green stickers that have a similar sweeping design as the Celicas but with modern Gazoo Racing graphics. I love the four huge rally lights added to the nose, and the big rear wing is a nice callback to the wilder Celica GT-Four variants. The GR86 Rally also has red mudflaps, white Speedline wheels and a custom exhaust system with two pipes sticking out of where the license plate normally goes. It looks rad as hell, especially with the taller ride height.
The GR86 Rally’s interior is pretty stripped out. It’s got pair of Sparco bucket seats with red six-point harnesses, a white roll cage, a Sparco racing steering wheel, a blanked-out dashboard with a handful of switches and dials, a racing digital gauge cluster and a tall shifter for the sequential box.
Toyota says the GR86 Rally is just a concept car, but it’s clear from the build that it’s something the company is seriously thinking about Group vice president of Toyota marketing Mike Tripp saying it’s “a testament to Toyota’s enduring passion for rally racing. We did this build for our GR and Toyota Rally fans—it’s a fantasy car come to life, our way of celebrating our past achievements and the possibility of the World Rally Championship making a return to the United States.”
Recent rumors have pointed to Toyota coming out with a new Celica; the company even teased it in an official video this week. It’s likely too costly to offer the GR86 Rally as a production GR-Four model, but using its learnings as the basis for a new Celica GT-Four? That’s exactly what I want. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good pure sports car like the GR86, especially living close to some of the best roads in the world, but I don’t want a sports car like that all the time.
Give me a sports car body (preferably with a liftback instead of a trunk like the GR86) with a turbo’d engine, all-wheel-drive, a raised suspension and off-road tires. Think mini Porsche 911 Dakar. Offer it with a real rally-style automatic, the same one that just debuted in the GR Corolla perhaps, and give it fun throwback styling cues. That would still be fun on a canyon road, but much more livable in LA traffic and with LA potholes. Plus, I could take it on all the incredible dirt trails we have in Southern California, or up into snowy mountains. I’m so sold.
There is one way Toyota could bring costs down and do the GR86 Rally now, or maybe with the next-generation model. Take advantage of the partnership with Subaru, and let them do a version of the GR-Four that would be the BRZ Wilderness. A lifted BRZ with a hood scoop and ridiculous body cladding? That would be sick.
