The Toyota Celica was a popular series of coupes made by the Japanese automaker, Toyota. Celica itself is derived from the Latin word coelica meaning “heavenly” or “celestial”.

The Toyota Celica Liftback was introduced to the Japanese market in April 1973 but it was not until 1976 that it started hitting the streets in the American market. The American Liftback in particular, was powered by a 2.2 liter 20R engine and was very similar to the Mustang shape as they both had distinct flat nose designs.

For the 1976-1977 model year, the Liftback was made available with an 18R-GU Twincam engine with a Yamaha head and running gear. The Liftback also debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1972 and along with it’s driver, Ove Anderson, finished in ninth place.

As technology progressed and Celica made its way to the 1990’s, Toyota made the decision to completely revamp the Celica line.

Starting in 1994 the Celica was only available in ST and GT trims in the USA. Clearly this became a heated topic since many GT-S fans felt kicked to the curve. Fortunately, Toyota did add an optional “Sports Package” to the GT which produced GT-S like handling and they even went as far as to call it the GT-S in Canada even though it was just a GT with the optional Sports Package. The only catch to this option was that it was only available on the Liftback model.

Along with the change in trims and the removal of the GT-S from its lineup, Toyota did add some notable things to their coupe. For starters, driver and passenger airbags were now standard and anti-lock brakes were available on all models. In addition, most Celicas also supported CFC-free air conditioning.

Sadly for many Celica fans around the world, the demise of the car was almost inevitable. Starting in 1997 Toyota discontinued the GT coupe due to little demand and in 1998, the underpowered ST model was discontinued leaving only GT models to pick from. In 1999, a devastating blow came to the line when Toyota announced that all Celica coupes would be discontinued. This left only the GT Liftback and GT Convertible available for purchase.

The Celica was being purchased less and less and in 2004, only 8,710 Celicas were sold. Toyota announced that it would be the last year for Celica production and blamed it on poor sales and the introduction of the cheaper and comparable Scion Tc.