When Toyota first introduced the Celica coupé in late 1970 (making this year it’s 50th anniversary, something we’ll mark in a later article), it was the start of what became a long line that ran through seven generations over a 26-year period. The first, in both notchback and Liftback form, remains my favourite Celica, with subsequent iterations generally not floating my boat, the second and third generations in particular missing the mark for me.
However, the 4th generation was a car that both looked sharp and was no slouch on the road. A good friend of mine ran a metallic dark green one for a couple of years back in the day and I was pretty impressed – it was comfortable, well-equipped and pretty nippy (no pun intended).
1st and 2nd Generation Celica’s
There was a lot of European and Japanese competition for the Celica across the years, and by the time the 4th generation went on sale in 1985, alternatives included the Honda Prelude, Mazda RX-7, VW Scirocco, Renault Fuego, and more, as we shall see later, and all offered sporty coupé styling and decent – in some cases sparkling – performance.
There were several alternatives to the Celica…
So what of the 4th generation Celica?
It had little or nothing in common with the previous model. The body was all-new, with no design elements in common, other than perhaps a slight similarity at the front end, but that was all. It was also very aerodynamically efficient for its time, with a claimed drag co-efficient of 0.31.
There were many variations of Celica sold around the world, but in Europe there were five, two 1.6’s and three 2.0 litre versions, topped by the turbo version enabling the engine to produce 190bhp, enough to drive the car to a top speed of 137mph. This version was further developed to tackle Group A rallying, which it did with some success, Carlos Sainz winning the WRC drivers’ championship in 1990 in a 5th generation Celica, with Toyota finishing second in the manufacturers’ series.
All were front-wheel drive – the first three generations were all rear-wheel drive – and came with either a 5-speed manual or 4-speed auto gearbox, and equipment levels were comprehensive, with electric windows and sunroof standard on the Celica GT.
In a Group Test in December 1985 Motor magazine said the Celica’s “superb handling balance is not achieved at the expense of ride quality”. Motor generally praised the car, the only negative seeming to be the noise level, due to the fairly high-revving engine.
Incidentally, the cars Motor compared to the Celica were the Ford Capri 2.8i (£10,231), Isuzu Piazza (£11,950), Audi Coupe (£11,353), Nissan Silvia Coupe (£9,545) and the Alfa Romeo GTV6 (£11,320). The Celica 2.0GT at £11,999 was the most expensive in the group and was summed up as “very good indeed but certainly not cheap”.
…as Motor’s 1985 Group Test shows.
Today, all these – with the exception perhaps of the Capri – are still available as relatively budget classics, which leads us nicely to our Prime Find this week.
There are still a few thousand Celica’s of all types in the UK, and this one is a 2.0-litre, GT-i 16 Liftback, finished in white with blue interior. Producing 147bhp, this car was capable of over 125mph when new. This particular example appears to be almost new, as what sets it apart from the vast majority of other Celica’s still around (and indeed most 1988-built cars) is its very low mileage – just 13,000.
While there is limited information on the dealer’s website, there are numerous photos here; the car is described as a “total time warp” and comes “complete with its original keys, brochures and service receipts from through the years”, so it would seem that the mileage is verifiable.
We’ve borrowed some of the dealer’s photographs and the car does look good, as it arguably should, after so little use. I have to say that I think this generation of Celica is one of the best-looking cars to come out of Japan, pleasing from every angle, even in white, which is not one of my favourite colours. The one downside for me is that it’s an automatic, but others might see that as a good thing.
At £15,950, it’s considerably more than the average Celica, but for what is a barely used car and for someone looking for a relatively modern – albeit now 32 years old – classic GT, this Celica could fit the bill. As always, interested parties should inspect the car (or have it inspected) before committing to purchase.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro