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This is a '95 Toyota Celica GT-Four. The third (and final) generation of the Celica GT-Four, this was the most powerful Celica to date as well as Toyota's competitor in the 1995 World Rally Championship. Powered by a turbocharged 2.0L 3S-GTE inline-4 mated to a 5-speed Toyota E154F manual, the Celica GT-Four's design was influenced strongly by the Toyota Castrol Team, with an all-aluminum hood, four-channel ABS and "Super Strut Suspension". 2,500 models had to be produced for the Celica GT-Four to satisfy Group A homologation rules, with the rally cars receiving race-specific features like an anti-lag system. Significant for its ability to hold its own in a rally championship dominated by Europeans and win rallies, production ended in June 1999.
The rally cars competed in the 1995 World Rally Championship with the Toyota Castrol Team. The car was not as successful as the previous generations, scoring only a single win at the 1995 Tour de Corse at the hands of Didier Auriol and Denis Giraudet. Toyota was later embroiled in controversy at the 1995 Rally Catalunya when they were found to have used illegal turbo restrictors; as a result the team was disqualified from the championship while driver Juha Kankkunen was leading the championship and banned from competing in 1996 (although privateers were still allowed to run Toyotas). Former FIA president Max Mosley, who was behind the decision, later stated that there was no suggestion that the drivers were aware of the modification. For 1997 Toyota switched to the Corolla.
Now this casting was designed by Mark Jones and introduced in 2022 in the Mountain Drifters series of the Car Culture line. This is currently its only release.
