The longest-running sports car nameplate in Toyota’s history, the Celica holds great significance for many Japanese sports car enthusiasts. The model’s production run spanned seven generations between 1970 and 2006, all tailored to enthusiasts who wanted a fun sports car on a budget. Now, it seems Toyota is serious about bringing the Celica back, filing a trademark for the GR Celica in Brazil with a February 4 publishing date.

Crucial here is the “GR” part, which stands for “Gazoo Racing” – Toyota’s current high-performance arm whose badging makes its way onto all of its new performance cars, including the GR Supra and GR Corolla. All of the above suggests a new performance-focused Toyota Celica will ostensibly be sold in the South American market, likely alongside Japan, Europe, and hopefully North America.

The Toyota Celica’s Return Is Imminent

Despite the Celica being discontinued in 2006 without any sort of successor, Toyota had already confirmed the model’s return. Speaking at a public rally in Japan last year, Toyota’s Vice President Yuki Nakajima mentioned that “there are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica. So… I wonder if it’s okay to say this in a public forum, but we’re doing the Celica!”

We now know the Celica is coming back, but we still don’t know what it will look like. Well, there has been some news about this as well. Remember that gorgeous mid-engined FT-Se concept Toyota unveiled a few years ago that many dubbed the future MR2? Well, newest reports from Japanese car magazine Best Car, which is known to reveal crucial information about upcoming Japanese cars, suggest that the Celica and the MR2 concept are actually the same car. In other words, the new Celica could be a mid-engined sports car.

A Mid-Engined Celica?

When it comes to possible power plants for the Celica, Toyota recently also announced it’s developing two new engine platforms for its upcoming performance cars – a turbocharged and naturally aspirated 1.5-liter and a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making up to 400 hp. The latter could easily find its way under the Celica’s hood. This engine could also be paired with the new GR Corolla’s AWD to provide additional traction and tame the massive power sent to the wheels.