New Toyota Celica Could Reportedly Go Mid-Engine and AWD, While Supra Could Pack 500 HP?
Toyota has been drawing acclaim lately with enthusiast-focused vehicles like the GR Corolla, but it’s far from done yet. Recent reports have strongly suggested that the Supra nameplate will live on past its outgoing BMW-linked A90 generation and that the long-dormant Celica nameplate will return as well—but a new report out of Japan suggests that these next generations will be both more powerful and, in at least one case, far different than those before.
Courtesy Toyota
According to Japanese publication Best Car Web, Toyota’s Gazoo Racing skunkworks division is cooking up a new Supra and a revived Celica as a pair of halo cars. The Supra allegedly will stick with the traditional front-engine-rear-drive format, but swaps the current BMW straight-six for a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder paired to an electric motor. The supposed system output? More than 500 horsepower, which would easily outgun the outgoing Supra’s 382. Reportedly, the hybrid hardware—including the battery and motor—will sit behind the seats, which sounds strange for Toyota.
What’s truly strange, though, is the rumor about the Celica.
Toyota’s mid-engined FT-Se concept vehicle. Tomohiro Ohsumi – Getty Images
Best Car claims it’ll come back in 2028 as a mid-engine all-wheel-drive coupe with around 400 horsepower, thanks to the same 2.0-liter turbo engine but without the hybrid boost. That would make it the first mid-engined Toyota road car since the MR-S bowed out; that said, the automaker has been quietly testing a mid-engine GR Yaris as a proof of concept, so it might not be as ridiculous as it sounds at first.
Both cars are allegedly being developed with a six-speed manual gearbox and an eight-speed automatic in mind. Price tags will reportedly stretch well into the premium bracket for both between 7 and 10 million yen ($50,000–70,000 at current exchange rates), although market conditions and tariffs could mean American prices might wind up being quite different should this come to pass.
The previous Toyota Celica. Toyota
Take all of this with a not just a grain of salt, but rather a whole bucket, because what we’re hearing sounds less like a press release and more like a fan forum wishlist. It’s worth remembering that Toyota has teased and shelved sports car projects before, from whispered MR2 revivals to vaporware Lexus supercars. So while the thought of a 500-horsepower Supra and a mid-engine Celica sounds fantastic, it’s best to file these rumors under “we’ll believe it when we see it” for now.
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