Toyota's plan to save driving: Epic "Three Brothers" sports car plan finally comes to life in the all-new 300kW Celica - and that's just the beginning | Opinion

It feels like a long time ago now, but Toyota was once regularly chided for being among the world’s most boring car companies, at least in terms of its product, with the automotive giant putting driving engagement a distant — distant — second to sensible practicality across its range.

This is before the launch of the Toyota 86, of course. Back when a Camry was about the coolest model in the Japanese giant’s model lineup. Unless, of course, you had a penchant for Prius.

But those times have changed, not just through the launch of both generations of the Toyota 86, but also through the brand’s wildly improbable choice to focus on a proper performance sub-brand, which has already produced the GR Yaris and GR Corolla – both among the very best vehicles in their respective hot hatch classes.

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Then there was the partnership with BMW on the reborn Supra (a twin of the German brand’s Z4), which injected new life into one of Toyota’s most storied nameplates.

The truly exciting news is that Toyota isn’t done yet, with reports now surfacing, and gathering in number, that say the brand’s long-touted "Three Brothers" sport car strategy is about to step up a gear through the reincarnation of yet another storied Toyota nameplate, the Celica.

Toyota’s Three Brothers strategy was first mentioned way back in 2019, when the brand’s global chief Akio Toyoda spoke of his plans to reintroduce Toyota’s three performance-car brothers, the MR2, the Celica and the Supra.

Enter, then, the MR2, which according to reports, is firming as a proper two-door, two-seat performance hero. The latest Japanese reporting points to that model being launched in 2026, and with an engine borrowed from the GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

The Supra exists already, of course. Which leaves only the Celica to make its comeback, and the latest reporting suggests it could be coming sooner rather than later. In fact, Japan’s Best Car Web suggests the model will make its debut, likely in concept form, at the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon.

Interestingly, the Celica won’t be powered by Toyota’s GR engine, at least according to the reports. Instead it will deploy a new 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine producing an incredible 300kW. As reported by CarsGuide, the engine is rumoured to have been production ready for some time, just without an appropriate vehicle for it to live inside.

Better still, the Supra, Celica and MR2 will exist alongside models like the GR Yaris and GR Corolla, all of which puts Toyota a long way from dull old days and positions the Japanese giant as the new hero of driving enthusiasts.

And nobody saw it coming.