The Toyota Celica is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word coelica meaning heavenly or celestial. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to Toyota Corolla Store dealer chain. Produced across seven generations, the Celica was powered by various four-cylinder engines, and body styles included convertibles, liftbacks, and notchback coupé.
Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times. Constructors' world champions to have benefited from Sainz are Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën. In the 2018 season, he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total. He received the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2020. Sainz founded the Acciona | Sainz XE Team to join Extreme E and competed in the first two seasons alongside Laia Sanz.
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series. Both Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have since collected more world titles, but no driver was able to repeat Kankkunen's feat of becoming a world champion with three different manufacturers until Ogier matched this achievement in 2020.
Didier Auriol is a French former rally driver. Born in Montpellier and initially an ambulance driver, he competed in the World Rally Championship throughout the 1990s. He became World Rally Champion in 1994, the first driver from his country to do so. He was a factory candidate for Lancia, Toyota and Peugeot among others, before losing his seat at Škoda at the end of 2003. His sister Nadine was also involved in rallying as a co-driver, while his brother Gerrard was also a former rally driver.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH (TGR-E) is an automotive engineering and motorsport services facility based in Cologne, Germany. It is fully-owned and controlled by Toyota Motor Corporation.
Ian Duncan is one of Kenya's most successful rally drivers. He was Kenyan Rally Champion six times, and achieved outright victory in a World Rally Championship round when he won the 42nd Trustbank Safari Rally in 1994. This was one of seven consecutive top ten finishes in the event from 1990 to 1996, despite its notorious attrition rate.
Per Torsten Eklund is a Swedish Rally and Rallycross driver. His nickname is "Pekka". In rallying he never made it to the very top but he has been very successful in his later rallycross career.
The Motorsport Australia Rally Championship, also commonly known as the Australian Rally Championship (ARC), is Australia's premier gravel rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968, excepting 2020.
Ove Andersson, nicknamed Påven, was a Swedish rally driver and the first head of Toyota's F1 programme.
Armin Schwarz is a German rally driver. He competed in the World Rally Championship from 1988 to 2005, winning the 1991 Rally Catalunya and taking six other podium finishes. Outside the WRC, he won the German Rally Championship (1987–88), the European Rally Championship (1996) and the "Rally Masters" event at the Race of Champions (2000).
The Toyota Celica GT-Four is a high performance model of the Celica Liftback that was produced from 1986 to 1999, with a turbocharged 3S-GTE engine, and full-time AWD. It was created to compete in the World Rally Championship, whose regulations dictate that a manufacturer must build road-going versions of the vehicle in sufficient numbers. These vehicles are referred to as "homologation special vehicles".
Jari-Matti Latvala is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and 2019 Rally Catalunya. He is well known for his aggressive driving style, which earns him many plaudits, and comparisons to the late Colin McRae. With 18 event victories in the WRC, he is one of the most successful drivers to not have won a championship. Latvala is also the driver with the most World Rally starts in the sport which he achieved in 2019, 17 years after his debut.
Nicholas Mark Grist is a Welsh former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies with more than one driver.
The Toyota Corolla WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Toyota Castrol Team by Toyota Motorsport GmbH to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the E110 version of Toyota Corolla road car. The car was debuted at the 1997 Rally Finland, and replaced the Toyota Celica Turbo ST205. It won a total of four rally victories and the 1999 World Manufacturers' title.
Since its introduction to motorsport in the early 1970s, Toyota has been involved in a number of motorsport activities, most notably in Formula One, NASCAR, IndyCar, sports car racing, various off-road rallies and the WRC. Currently, Toyota participates in the Toyota Racing Series, Super Formula, Formula Three, Formula Drift, NHRA, USAC, Super GT, NASCAR, the WRC and the WEC.
Lars-Erik Torph was a Swedish rally driver. He debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1980 and took his first points at his home event, the Swedish Rally, in 1984. Driving a Toyota Celica TCT, a Toyota Supra 3.0i and an Audi Coupé Quattro, he went on to finish on the podium four times. After just turning 28, Torph and his co-driver Bertil-Rune Rehnfeldt died while spectating the 1989 Monte Carlo Rally, after Lancia driver Alex Fiorio lost control of his Delta Integrale and crashed into them.
Andrea Aghini Lombardi is an Italian rally driver. He won the 1992 Rallye Sanremo and took four other podium finishes in the World Rally Championship from 1992 to 1995. In 1992, he also won the Race of Champions, after beating Carlos Sainz in the semi-final and Colin McRae in the final.
Neal Anthony Bates is an Australian rally and racing car driver. Throughout his career Bates has been associated with Toyota in the Australian Rally Championship and for 19 years his Neal Bates Motorsport outfit ran Toyota's official rally program in Australia. Bates claimed four drivers' titles in this time and helped Toyota win four manufacturers' crowns.
Molly Anne Taylor is an Australian rally car driver. She is the 2016 Australian Rally Champion, the first and only woman to win the Australian Rally Championship and the youngest regardless of gender, and the 2021 Extreme E Champion.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team is a competitor of the World Rally Championship (WRC) based in Finland, serving as the entry for the car manufacturer Toyota. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala and its drivers for 2023 include reigning champion Kalle Rovanperä, alongside Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier. The team made its debut during the 2017 season, where it entered the Toyota Yaris WRC.
