Dan Trent: Ultimate rallying Toyota was no cheat

When Group B was killed off the only car capable of breaking the Lancia Delta Integrale’s dominance was the Celica GT-Four, Carlos Sainz taking the WRC title in 1990 and repeating the feat in 1992 with the new ST185 version. Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol then followed suit in 1993 and 1994.

1995 saw the introduction of a new GT-Four and strong signs the winning streak would continue, Toyota keen to show Japanese rivals Subaru and Mitsubishi who was boss. Infamously Toyota’s will to win rather got the better of it, an ingenious turbo cheat that bypassed the mandated FIA restrictor eventually discovered and leading to the team’s exclusion from the championship. Toyota never recovered, the years that followed ending up a two-way battle between the Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo.

Is the road going version of that car tainted as a result? I don’t think so, the ST205 Celica GT-Four to my eyes the ultimate expression of a winning lineage of Toyota rally cars. And one of the unsung heroes of the 90s Japanese rally reps now making serious money in modern classic circles.

Not convinced? I wrote here recently about the  22B Imprezas now commanding six-figure sums, rarities like the Makinen edition Evo VI chasing hard and selling for as much as £50K. Even the ‘regular’ versions of these cars are now heading into the high teens and low 20s. As such a smidge under £10,000 for a very clean looking example of the ultimate rallying Celica looks like a bit of a steal to me.

Doesn’t do any harm it’s also a damned cool car!

While the Imprezas and Evos were based on regular saloons the Celica scores for its more exotic looks, its curvy coupe lines perhaps not classically beautiful. But very Japanese and given added purpose by the distinctive vents and intakes on the bonnet. This imported JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) GT-Four is from the run of 2,500 WRC editions and gets the taller rear wing, the homologation rules meaning it also has plumbing for water injection and an anti-lag system not featured on standard GT-Fours. Do also you get Toyota’s sneaky rule-bending turbo mod? Probably not. But if you out-drag any Imprezas or Evos in your travels don’t necessarily be too surprised!

Putting the 255bhp to the road is a four-wheel drive powertrain, the front suspension using an innovative understeer-killing ‘Superstrut’ design similar to the ‘Revoknuckle’ on the previous-generation Focus RS. OK, OK, this is all properly geeky. But indulge me - I am a geek. And stuff like this is why I love these 90s rally reps. And what makes them so much fun to drive.

You can keep your track cars. For making progress on a twisty B-roads a rally-inspired machine like this is what you want, the combination of short gearing, explosive turbocharged power, four-wheel drive and all manner of clever chassis gizmos making them far more potent point-to-point. There’s a brutality to the looks and sense of purpose that appeals to me too, rally cars the definition of function before form but attractive in their own way.  

As values of contemporary BMW M cars and air-cooled Porsches skyrocket I think cars like this Celica look like stellar value. And the reputation as a cheat? Even the FIA inspectors who discovered Toyota’s bodge admitted their admiration for its cleverness. Pushing technology to the limit of the rules – and beyond – has always been part of motorsport. The Celica just happened to be the one caught doing it. And aren’t flawed heroes always the more interesting ones?