(car engine revving) - It's the Japanese pony
car that helped jump start America's love affair with imports. It was kicking WRC butt and taking names before the WRX and EVO even
showed up to the party. (car engine revving) This is everything you need to know about the Toyota Celica. (upbeat electronic music) The year was 1970 and American muscle cars were selling like frickin' hotcakes. Japanese cars, on the other hand, weren't so much. Toyota realized that to sell more cars to Americans, they was
gonna have to start building them more suited to American tastes. Bigger engines, bigger seats. At the Tokyo Motor Show, that October, they launched a new
two-door coupe designed for the worldwide market meaning, it could fit drivers as tall as me. It was named the Celica which came from a Latin word that meant celestial or heavenly. It was based on the Toyota Carina and it was a little bigger
than the ultra-compact Corolla. Of course, it was practical and affordable but the Celica had something more. It was sporty and it launched in the
US in the middle of 1971 with a price significantly
lower than the Mustang. Under the long hood was
a 1.9 liter, inline-4, that made barely ninety heavenly ponies. (car engine revving) To top it off, the best selling Mustang had gotten a case of the bloat and both it's weight and
waistline were increasing. Just like that crazy TV doctors time travelling telephone booth, the Celica was small on the outside but big on the inside. Did I just make a Doctor
Who joke in Up to Speed? It was also the first Japanese car to be partially built on
an automated assembly line which gave it better build quality than its American competitors. It had standard front-disc brakes. A sweet four speed manual transmission an independent MacPherson
strut suspension, up front. The little Japanese bad
boy car had a lot of things going for it and people
started buying em'. One of those early cars went
to Swede, Ove Andersson. Who, kicked off the
Celica's long racing career in the WRC, with a ninth place finish in their first rally. (car engine revving) He formed Toyota Team Europe and kept racing while he waited for boost and even more drive wheels. Soon, higher performance
GT trims were introduced and both engine size
and sales, crept higher. In '76, they introduced a sportier, more practical liftback
model with folding rear seats and a 2.2 liter engine. [Announcer] - You asked for it, the Toyota Celica GT Liftback. - The new trim had vertical taillights and louvers on the seed pilar and it looked suspiciously
like a little Mustang. Suspicious or not, it was a huge hit and Motor Trend named the Celica their import car of the year. Toyota had already sold over a million of the Japanese pony cars, worldwide before 1977 was done. The second-gen Celica debuted in 1978 with a new look pended,
Toyota's SoCal Design Studio by former child actor, David Stollery. The new car was a little
bigger and more comfortable with a low beltline and expansive windows. It had the same 2.2 liter engine but the already good
Celica was so improved that it won Motor Trend
Import Car of the Year, again. Only two years after it's first win. In the rest of the world, the Celica was offered in what was called, a Full Choice System with two body styles, a bunch of engine sizes, a bunch of transmissions, a bunch of optional features, and at one point, there were forty nine
unique Celica variants for sale in Japan. This car is confusing as (bleep). So, I'm sorry if (bleep) is wrong. It was at this point
that the Celica started to spawn some celestial children. First, in 1979, a new trim called the Celica Supra was born. You ever heard of it you little pigs, you little piggies? I bet when I said that word, some of you were making
Ramen and you were like, huh? Supra? I bet some of you were in the bathtub and you heard Supra and you're like, what! And you knocked your laptop in the bathtub and then you electrocute yourself, rest in peace, I'm sorry. Go back. (laughter) It had a Celica butt
with a longer front end to fit a 110 horsepower, 2.6 liter straight-six under the hood. The rest is tuner history. We covered this car in
one of our first episodes of Up to Speed. Oh, you know what, that reminds me, please subscribe right now. Then, in 1980 the four-door Celica Camry came out in Japan. It was just a Toyota Carina
with a Celica super front end but it soon spun off
one of the most sedate and successful sedans in America. Right about when Indiana Jones was trying to raid the Ark of the Covenant
before the bad guys did. The redesigned third-gen Celica came out. It got a full early 80's makeover, complete with flat body panels, boxy lines and aerodynamic headlights that tilted forward just
like the Lamborghini Miura. (piano music) You are so beautiful. The interior took a
futuristic leap forward too, with a digital dash and
one of the world's first in-car GPS navigation system. In '82 the first turbo-charged Celica finally went on sale in Japan and you better believe, a fire breathing 320
horsepower, group B rally car and a few 180 horsepower
homologation models weren't far behind. (car engine revving) unfortunately, the Celica Twin-Cam Turbo was only rear-wheel drive and it really didn't stand a chance at winning the championship against it's all-wheel drive competitors. But that didn't stop it from beatin' up on it's big brothers, a little bit. Especially when the fam was
road tripping in Africa. The Celica won most of the WRC rally's on that continent, over
the next four years and became known as the King of Africa. It had been almost forty years since I won Baha and I had
been trying to make ends meet as a comedic actor in Los Angeles. After ten years of pounding the pavement and getting rejected at every turn, i.e., losing every part I
auditioned for to Josh Gad. I mean, what's the attraction? Anyway, I was feeling pretty lowdown so I went to the only
place I knew I had friends, my local Pep Boys. The guys welcomed me with open arms. We talked through the
night, they listened. Like, really listened. When the sun came up
Jack pointed to a Dojo at the top of a mountain. It was time to forge a new path, to find a new way. (inspiring music) I trained nonstop for months. Learning everything I could
about every possible car. I did strenuous voice exercises so that I could scream louder than any other car host on the internet. (screaming) Finally, I began to dream in cars and I knew that my training was complete. It was time to return to the mortal realm and conquer the final fontier
of comedic automotive content. YouTube. I owe it all to my friends, Manny, Moe, and Jack. Pep bros for life. Toyota was totally revamping
Celicas every four years at this point. The fourth-gen debuted in '85, in a softer more aerodynamic shape. And bum, bum, bum. They switched front rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive. (car engine revving) The new transverse engine layout let them redesign the suspension and add MacPherson struts to the rear, which gave it better handling. Dan Gurney's All American Racers Team started dominating the IMSA race series. Proving Celicas could
hustle around a racetrack as well as a rally stage. Even with front-wheel drive. (car engine revving) But Toyota still had rally on the brain because they soon introduced
the 190 horsepower, turbocharged, two liter
Celica GT-Four AKA, the All-Trac. It was the most powerful two liter to come out of Japan and this bad boy had full-time all-wheel drive, with a center locking differential. (car backfiring) The Celica was finally able to beat up on it's rally brothers, Lars. And Carlos Sainz, took home the 1990 WRC
Drivers Championship. Toyota was the first Japanese manufacturer to race all-wheel drive cars in WRC and beat the European
manufacturers, to win rally titles. Right on schedule, a super
curvy Celica facelift arrived at the end of 1989. All the Celicas were vastly improved with upgraded interiors, smoother engines and bigger wheels and tires. Meanwhile, older Celicas
were actually winning awards from the press for their reliability. The new All-Trac got more aggressive and everybody but the US got a limited run of special editions with lighter bumpers, a vented hood, better
intercooler and a new ECU tune. The newly pumped up Toyota
was slaying it, in WRC, Winning the Driver's Championship, three years in a row starting in '92. (car engine revving) Yep, you guessed it, after four years of the
ultra-round body style, the sculpted, Supra six-gen
Celica arrived in '93. What, Supra? Did he say Supra? Oh no. The rest of the world
got a sweet new GT-4, making 250 HRSPRS. And in the states, we didn't get it. (car engine revving) That's a shame 'cuz this was the coolest
homologation Celica yet. It had an upgraded turbo and super strut suspension, a lightweight aluminum hood and a big Supra wing. What's that? That's all kind of, normal stuff, you say? Well, it also left the
factory with water injection. A water sprayer on the intercooler and all the plumbing needed for a fully functional anti-lag system. That's cool as (bleep). From the freakin' factory. Toyota's successful
racing streak continued with the new GT-4. This six-gen Celica
was the first rally car to use an anti-lag system, which is common practice now. Rod Millen won the Pike's
Peak International Hill Climb, three times and set a record
time that stood for ten years. (car engine revving) Toyota Team Europe was still doing really well in
the 1995 WRC season too. Actually, they were doing really well until Rally Catalunya, when
they were found to be cheating. - Oh my god, oh my god. - Earlier that year,
those pesky FIA rules guys had decided that WRC
cars were creeping closer to dangerous Group-E speeds again and they made all the fastest turbo cars install a restrictor
plate to limit horsepower but someone at the Toyota team came up with a brilliant work-around that let air go right
past the restrictor plate. Toyota lawyered up and threw a fit. - No way, you can't punish us. We had no idea what was goin' on, man. - The FIA was like, even
if it wasn't your idea, it's still your problem. Now go to you room. - Oh, what. - Guys, I don't wanna hear it. I will call you when dinners ready. - I hate you. - I know you don't mean that. - Yes, I do. I wish FIA wasn't my dad. Some independent teams still ran GT-4's in the '96 and '97 WRC season but that was pretty much the end of the Celica's rally glory. Toyota took a little more than four years bringing the seventh and
final generation Celica to the market this time. They showed a dramatically
different concept car called the XYR at the
'99 Detroit Motor Show and the 2000 Celica came out
looking almost exactly like it. It was angular and chiseled, just like my pecks. And the long-running coupe,
convertible and GT-4 models were all axed in favor of a simpler all hatchback lineup. The same dude who managed the
third-gen MR2 development, Tadashi Nakagawa was also in
charge of the latest Celica. His mission was to make
it cheaper and lighter Which is he did by eliminating
redundant interior controls, making the sunroof out of plastic and using a smaller 1.8 liter engine but it wasn't just any
old 1.8 liter engine, it was a high-revving
VVTI 1.8 liter engine. That means, variable valve
timing with intelligence, you knucklehead. (car engine revving) The base GT trim got the 140 horsepower, 1ZZFE and the GTS got the 180 horsepower 2ZZGE which had VVTLI, that
means variable valve timing and lift with intelligence. You knuckleheads. So, it was like Toyota's
version of an E-tech. (screaming) and was one of a handful of engines with a red line over 8,000 RPMS and making more than 100
horsepower per liter. It's such a good engine that Lotus used it in the Elise and Exige. There were a ton of TRD
performance parts available and there was even a factory body cat with a front fascia, side
skirts and big boy rear wing. It was all the stuff car
enthusiast should've wanted but it was all coming at a time when the import scene
was starting to cool off and more people wanted SUVs. Sales dropped off fast and furious and the Celica was pulled
from the American market at the end of 2005. Over more than thirty five years, Toyota made millions of
the affordable sports cars and the Celica may now be gone but it's spirit lives on, in our heart. (car engines revving) Hit that subscribe button. Check out this episode of Science Garage. Check out this episode of Up to Speed. Follow me on Instagram @jamespumphrey. Follow Donut @donutmedia. You like my shirt? Go buy you one. Shop.Donut.Media I love you.
