Rumors have been fly­ing about a new per­for­mance ori­ented Toy­ota sports car hit­ting the per­for­mance scene for a con­sid­er­able time now, from an AE86 revival to a new Supra, but per­haps no one expected news that these shad­owy rumors would coa­lesce into the for­got­ten Cel­ica GT-​​4.

The last model Cel­ica. Will we see styling cues from this?

But per­haps even more sur­pris­ing is the rumor that the car will be engi­neered to a large degree by Sub­aru. In Novem­ber Toy­ota con­firmed rumours of a new sports car and Cel­ica replace­ment, with the sports car being a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sub­aru and Toy­ota, and now it seems the car is the per­for­mance model of the Cel­ica line. How­ever, the new car will not come with a Toy­ota bred turbo four in the tra­di­tion of the (some­what) under­pow­ered motor of the old model — instead it’s going to be car­ry­ing a Sub­aru Boxer turbo, most recently seen in the all grown up Sub­aru Impreza WRX STi.

The new model is said to come in two dis­tinct per­for­mance vari­ants. First, the base ‘GT’, pack­ing a front engined, RWD dri­ve­train and nat­u­rally aspi­rated 2.0L 4 cylin­der Boxer (most likely from the Impreza RX), designed to slide in under the $20,000 bracket. Sec­ondly the full fat GT-​​4, which car­ries the new JDM STi’s 224KW (300HP) Boxer turbo and AWD sys­tem stan­dard, with Motor Trend claim­ing the engine will be closer to the cars fire­wall in order to facil­i­tate the instal­la­tion of in-​​wheel elec­tric motors to help with traction.

The GT and GT-​​4 will be built in in coupe and three-​​door hatch vari­ants, but no five door vari­ants because of Toy­ota and Sub­aru not want­ing to com­pete in the Impreza’s arena, which is rather tongue in cheek con­sid­er­ing this new car will inevitably be seen as either a Impreza in Toy­ota cloth­ing, or as direct com­pe­ti­tion by tuners. This begs the ques­tion then; will the new GT-​​4 be a real con­tender in the hotly con­tested price for per­for­mance bracket? Will the Toy­ota be lighter, faster, and more capa­ble than the new STi? Would Sub­aru shoot them­selves in the foot, and does it mat­ter con­sid­er­ing Toyota’s widen­ing stake in Sub­aru?

Does this mean Sub­aru will become more and more the per­for­mance arm of Toy­ota? Time will tell, but we cer­tainly hope not.

Com­pli­ance for the 2002+ ST246W (Gen 3) Cal­d­ina Sports wagon has just become avail­able in Aus­tralia, a few short months after the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion became avail­able in August this year. The ST246W runs the same 3S-​​GTE 2.0L 4 cylin­der DOHC turbo and 4WD plat­form as the pre­vi­ous generation.

Pres­tige Motor­sports prices for the Cal­d­ina start at AU$20,000 for a 02/​03 model with ~60,000kms. The 2006/​2007 will set you back around $30,000. Con­sid­er­able value for money for this great turbo fam­ily wagon.

[Source: Pres­tige Motor­sport]

As requested, here’s some infor­ma­tion on the pop­u­lar (mostly) JDM model Toy­ota turbo wagon known as the Cal­d­ina GT-​​T. Requests for more infor­ma­tion can be directed to IJ directly, and we’ll do our best to find out accu­rately all spec­i­fi­ca­tions on any import/​tuner car.

Note: The Cal­d­ina has become avail­able for import into Australia.

(1997–2002) Toyota Cal­d­ina 4WD GT-​​T Wagon

• Model Des­ig­na­tion: ST215W
• Engine: Front mounted, 2.0L DOHC inline four cylin­der tur­bocharged (sin­gle turbo). 16 valves (4 valves per cylin­der). Model: 3S-​​GTE.
• Power: 189.2 KW (257 HP) @ 6000.00 RPM
• Torque: 324.1 Nm (239 ft-​​lbs) @ 4500.00 RPM
• Fuel Econ­omy: Around 9L/​100km
• Low Emis­sions Vehi­cle (LEV): No
• Fuel Type: Pre­mium Unleaded
• Brakes (front/​rear): Ven­ti­lated Disk/​Disk
• Trans­mis­sion: 5 speed man­ual (Final Drive: 4.29)
• Weight: 1440 kg
• Dimen­sions (LxWxH in mm): (Exte­rior) 4520 x 1720 x 1495, (Inte­rior ) 1860 x 1475 x 1185

(2002-) Toyota Cal­d­ina 4WD GT-​​T Wagon

• Model Des­ig­na­tion: ST246W
• Engine: Front mounted, 2.0L DOHC inline four cylin­der tur­bocharged (sin­gle turbo). 16 valves (4 valves per cylin­der). Model: 3S-​​GTE.
• Power: 191.1 KW (257 HP) @ 6200.00 RPM
• Torque: 323.1 NM (239 ft-​​lbs) @ 4400.00 RPM
• Fuel Econ­omy: Around 9.4L/100km
• Low Emis­sions Vehi­cle (LEV): Yes
• Fuel Type: Pre­mium Unleaded
• Brakes (front/​rear): Ven­ti­lated Disk/​Disk
• Trans­mis­sion: 4 speed auto­matic (Super ECT)
• Weight: 1480 kg
• Dimen­sions (LxWxH in mm): (Exte­rior) 4510 x 1740 x 1445, (Inte­rior ) 1905 x 1455 x 1165