In 2015, Toyota GB built a fleet of six GT86 faithfully recreating the classic liveries of its great race and rally cars from the past 50 years. One of them was this car, inspired by Ove Andersson's 1970s Celica.
We took it for a drive in Scotland. What do you think?
The Toyota Celica’s arrival in rallying in 1972 came about through a fortuitous meeting between Toyota and leading Swedish rally driver Ove Andersson.
Toyota had been looking for a discreet way to enter the World Rally Championship that wouldn’t conflict with the corporation’s stand over the ongoing oil crisis, and Ove was interested in laying the groundwork for a post-retirement business plan in rally car preparation.
A deal was therefore struck in which Ove would be given a car and manufacturer backing in order to prepare a factory fresh Celica for competition in the 1972 Daily Mirror RAC Rally. Immediate success followed, with Andersson and co-pilot Geraint Phillips driving the 135bhp coupe to a class win and ninth position overall.
This led to the formation of Toyota Team Europe which developed into TMG, the team that races our Le Man hybrid sports car...
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