From hinting at five new sports cars to offering three different performance cars in the North American market alone, Toyota is having some serious fun, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. To celebrate its WRC heritage, the automaker has built something called the GR86 Rally Legacy Concept for the SEMA show, and not only does it look awesome, it’s also incredibly weird under the skin.
The GR86 Rally Legacy concept starts with splashes of red and green across white paint. See, back in the 1990s, swooshy Castrol liveries adorned Toyota’s World Rally Championship Celicas, and while there’s no Castrol branding on display today, the colors and forms are an undeniable nod to one of the greatest racing liveries of all time.
Complementing the bodywork, you’ll find a set of Speedline 2013C wheels, a continuation of an iconic Group A tarmac rally wheel that gained notoriety on World Rally Championship stages in the 1990s. Obviously, it’s now in modern sizing, but it still provides the right look to draw on that WRC heritage. The finishing exterior touches? A set of mud flaps, some enormous rally lights on the bumper, and a wing recalling that of the ST205 Celica GT-Four. Very nice.
However, none of what I’ve mentioned so far is particularly weird. Tasteful? Certainly. Respectful? Yeah. But weird? Not exactly. To find the weird part of the GR86 Rally Legacy concept, you’ll need to pop the hood, where you’ll soon realize that things aren’t quite what they seem.
Yep, that’s the 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine from a GR Corolla, but that’s not even the really strange part about this engine bay. Toyota has completely changed the orientation of the engine from longitudinal, or north-to-south, to transverse, or west-to-east. While it’s not unheard-of for some builders to take transverse front-wheel-drive cars and find a way to make longitudinal rear-wheel-drive powertrains fit, going the other direction is something new. There has to be a good reason here for the GR86 Rally Legacy concept to make this strange switch, and there is — the engine isn’t the only thing borrowed from the GR Corolla.
That’s because this concept car transplants the entire all-wheel-drive drivetrain from a GR Corolla underneath a GR86 as well. That means you get the adjustable torque-split transfer unit, the six-speed manual transmission, two Torsen limited-slip differentials, and genuine all-wheel-drive. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this required an enormous amount of work.
A new subframe holds the engine and gearbox into the car, custom control arms and coilovers mate the GR Corolla hubs and spindles to the front end of this GR86, the steering rack has been modified, and the front crash structure itself has been altered. It’s impressive that Toyota was even able to fit the air filter housing of the GR Corolla in this GR86, but with a project this extensive, it actually makes sense. Powertrain modifications are limited to an aftermarket intercooler, an aftermarket oil cooler, and a new ECU, which tracks with how Toyota claims this GR86 Rally Legacy concept makes the same 300 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque as a GR Corolla.
So, is trading a rear-wheel-drive layout for this sort of all-wheel-drive layout the right move? Well, that’s the cool thing about custom cars — they don’t have to appeal to everyone. On the right sort of loose surface, I bet this thing rips. More importantly, it seems to be an early concept of cashing in on some Celica appeal.
(Photo credits: Toyota)
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Larry Chen has a really good video overview of this car where these pictures came from. I really do wish this is an experiment from Toyota to gauge the interest in this car. I would be all over it if they actually produce this.
Was there much Celica love in other parts of the world? I don’t remember much love for it.
As near as makes no difference, 100% of the Celicas were not apparent performance machines, but more like the Solara. It existed as a coupe-ish car that your mom may like the looks of.
I know that the All-Trac existed, in theory. There weren’t many around. There were more GT-Ss running around from the final generation, but those were mainly cross-shopped against Scion tCs.
In my mind, performance-wise, I always ranked the Celica between the Corolla and Camry.
I think the all-trac had a lot more clout in Europe where the rallies were happening, and it dragged up the entire image of the Celica along with it. Also, even a relatively ‘pedestrian’ 2.0L coupe would have been considered relatively powerful by Euro standards against the cheap muscle we get here.
This is it. With Carlos Sainz winning everything left and right in the early 90’s Toyota and the Celica got a shot in the arm!
Mmhmm…mmhmm. Yep, I’m sold.
why is there no mention of Evasive Motorsports?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu-j93V9WpI
If anyone thinks Toyota’s involvement is more than just slapping their name and sanctioning the project, they’re in for a surprise.
The Castrol livery looks good and I always liked a pod of lights. I never cared for those wings even back in the day, but I don’t hate it here. I think the light pod balances it visually.
This is sweet! I know that I’d drive the wheels off of something like this!
I wonder why they wouldn’t go with an Impreza or WRX drivetrain. That seems like it would have been easier than cramming a transverse engine in there.
Anyways, I love this car and want it with all my little heart.
For the Subaru awd drivetrain doesn’t it put the front axles behind the engine? If I recall correctly most (all?) Subarus with awd have an awkwardly long front overhang because of this. I’d think it would make it difficult in this with the engine set so far back in the car.
The symmetry of their system is what makes it so inherently good, but yes, it would require the engine to be mounted farther forward, which would throw off the balance (if it would even fit and doing so would likely require the radiator to be split and mounted to the sides). Plus, it’s Toyota’s concept, so it makes sense to use their drivetrain (even if the platform is still Subaru, that’s a lot less obvious).
They would have had to use a different transmission and transfer case, and probably would have to raise the engine in the engine bay to make some space under it for the front diff and drive shafts.
If Toyota were to ditch Subaru and just sell this as the 3rd gen 86, or even just call it the Celica… I would not be offended.
*Boioioioioioioiiiinnnnngggggg!!!!!!!*
I’m guessing that we’ll start seeing 86’s with that wing in about a week.
They can put that GR powertrain(/platform?) in as many body styles as they want. It’s dope
Well, except for the fires. The fires are less dope.
That’s the Mk8 Celica they were hinting of right here.
Very cool build. Like most SEMA builds ultimately a bit pointless but very very cool.
Ooh. Wow. Ok yeah that’s awesome! I want it! Having owned a GT-Four Celica previously, I have a soft spot for them, but this just takes that to a whole new level!
That is easy on the eyes. Oh yes!
Would. Always loved the WRC Celica and even get a pang of regret watching Binky videos when I remember that a GT-Four donor died to make the project happen.
Look on the bright side, my great-grandchildren will love Binky when it gets completed. They’ll likely be retired by then, so plenty of time to watch!
The comments on their latest video were full of, ‘I was still in school when I saw the first Binky video….I’m watching this one with my grandkids!’
and there was no bracketry—but, damn if printing their own circuits using a mill isn’t freakin awesome 🙂
Oh man, creating your own solder trace prototyping machine is just bananas. I couldn’t believe it.
I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED.
I’d love to get this thing and just enter every rally I can manage. There’s actually quite a few of them up here in Canada.
….an Invader Zim reference?!?! As if I needed any more evidence that I’m amongst my people on this site….
A lot of Millenials on this site, and only nerds dedicate this much time to an Automotive website.
I feel like the Venn diagram of our readership is very close to a circle.
Okay but they should absolutely shove the GR Corolla/Yaris powertrain into a GR86 tho. It’ll somehow probably be less of a nuisance than the Subaru flat 4 has proven to be and it’ll give the car the power that everyone has always insisted it deserves with a factory warranty. Hell keep it around 40 grand and it would make a very interesting Mustang alternative.
Or, you know, just shove the WRX drivetrain into the 86 and call it a day. Either way I’d happily hoon it.
That doesn’t solve the flat 4 issue tho. I am trying to avoid Subaru drivetrains, giving it a more high-strung version, doesn’t help me
I’ve owned several with no issues. A lot of the issues the fr-s and GT86 had were traced back to Toyota techs not being properly trained to work on the Subaru blocks. The difference in issues between Toyota and Subaru owners of the Toyobarus backs this up.
Either way, do want more turbos and more AWD cars so I would encourage they build these both ways.
Stop watching youtuber parasites with a vested interest in creating drama. Most of the engine failures have been morons money shifting and plain old not checking the oil, even running the break in oil for 7500 miles without checking. One idiot insisted he didn’t do anything wrong and that Toyota was refusing his warranty because they’re an evil corporation or something. Eventually, the dolt posted the data logs from the service department that clearly showed over he hit 10k rpm. Even with that, he still swore he didn’t money shift. He has a great potential career in politics. Legit failures—like plenty of other cars has had, even far more boring ones—get covered.
I had an FR-S blow its engine around 40k miles. I was in traffic and definitely did not money shift. It was an early production car (2013 model delivered in June 2012) and they supposedly had a problem with the valvetrain on early models.
I never got the full diagnosis from the dealer, but there was no compression and all the oil and rotating assembly remained inside the block from my roadside inspection while waiting for a tow truck.
I did see the priced paperwork for the replacement and I think it was about $18k total. Combined with other recall work, Toyota potentially paid my dealer more than the full purchase price in warranty work.
I still don’t remember it as a troublesome vehicle. It really only stranded me that once – and at least it wasn’t for a small annoying issue. I am probably going to get another one.
There were a few recalls on the earlier 2.0s. Most of the failures on the 2.4s that I’ve heard of have been owner problems. Of course, now that I think of it, I’m only really hearing from people complaining because they’re hoping a social media stink will get them covered after denial and there may be a lot more who get covered without argument, IDK. One would have to get the failure rate and measure it against an industry standard to know and I don’t think anyone’s revealing that. Ultimately, engines today are built with small safety margins and reduced R&D as they devote resources to EVs. You could buy a regular Civic and still have an engine blow (like a guy at work) or I guess pretty much any Hyundai that’s not an EV. These 3 cylinder Toyota turbo engines are also having reported failures, but it looks like a lot of those are also owner issues. It doesn’t help that too many people buying these kinds of cars treat them like appliance cars from 20 years ago rather than the modern, more high strung engines that they are (which is another reason I like hybrids—no turbos, and the electric motor assist and Atkinson cycles all make for a lower stress environment). One guy with a twin with a blown motor for lack of oil was still running the break in oil at about 7k miles, had admitted to never even checking the oil in that time, and tried to argue that he wasn’t the idiot. Plus, it’s in the manual. Even basic CUVs can have engines that consume oil nowadays—especially with all these HC turbos and 0W oil—and the allowances that companies state for consumption before they consider it a problem is sometimes so laughably high that you’d think they were built during the malaise era.
To finally make my point: I don’t think these engines are top of the game for durability, but I also think they’re not particularly bad and there are far more boring cars that cost more (mine was several grand less than the most base Civic hatch with a stick I could price, not even counting markup) with more suspect engines that don’t get as much press as they don’t attract views on social media. Basically, I don’t think anyone should not buy a twin out of concern for the engine being a time bomb.
1000% agree. If not for a deal on something else, I would have had another one recently. I miss that cockpit.
It’s a great car and someone online recently posted a simple fix to a “major” problem I had with the car: unplugging the clutch pedal sensor pretty much got rid of the rev hang and vastly improved the throttle so that it feels like a real car, not something filtered through an ECU that may or may not do what you want. That and changing the clutch pedal spring out were massive, dirt cheap/free improvements.
Between this and the 2-door 4runner SEMA build, I am feeling betrayed by Toyota. They are dangling these awesome things with little chance of production.
Brings up great Gran Tourismo 3 memories looking like that Castrol Celica
Thinking about maybe it is unfortunate that they choose to pay a tribute to the car that got them banned from rallying…
Was looking for this comment! I do have to say, though, that it was an awful clever cheat . . . even if they did get caught. And that’s coming from an old Subaru fan.
It was indeed really clever. But Kankkunen leading a tarmac rally was too much to pass… nah just kidding.
In any case with Lancia out and Toyota banned that signalled the start of the Subaru-Mitsubishi rivalry (which finished when the Frenchies decided they had had enough and wanted to win again…)
Yeah, and with their (French) cars bearing even less resemblance to the road vehicles with stuff like the center crank power take offs, my interest dropped off. While that was kind of cool technically (if nothing actually new), with homologation no longer a thing, it just lost appeal for me. If something is going to be production appearing, IMO, it should be based on a production shell and drivetrain. I get having it at least vaguely resemble a road car as necessary to sell it as a marketing exercise to management, but that does nothing for me as a fan. If it’s not going to be based on a production car, then I want to see something wild.
Well technically the 206 WRC derived from an homologation special (the 206 GT), but only because the original model wasn’t long enough.
In any case I also started losing interest in the early aughts, not only because of the lack of homologation specials but the shorter rallies, lack of night stages, removal of the big door numbers (I know that one is stupid but…) and finally the ability to restart if you retire. They effectively destroyed what was, in my opinion, the ultimate form motorsport.
I guess we will have to make do with Endurance racing now.
At least there’s the ST185, which had quite the illustrious career
15 year ago I think yes, but now it’s been long enough to where this has become one of the racing cheating legends. After enough time instead of being mad at the cheaters we often celebrate their ingenuity (not a blanket statement, details and context certainly matter)