Out walking during our recent snowy spell, I couldn’t help but notice these two bright orange objects against the white and green. This particular Celica coupe is one of the best designs of the seventies; in a sea of over-wrought cars, especially the Japanese ones of the time, it really stood out then for its clean and elegant lines. And unlike most cars, I’ve never tired of it all these decades later. The guys that Toyota hired back then at its new Calty Studio hit a home run. And this car’s owner is an obvious fan of it too. I guess I’m not the only one.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one that color. It works.
Loved the clean looks of these at the time. Especially the hatchback. Very mature for the late 70s. Not so sure, about this modern paint color though. It almost overpowers it’s subtle classic looks for it’s era, and has the viewer comparing it to modern cookie cutter coupes that use this color. Alternately, I wouldn’t touch the dreadful muted browns and golds, that were common at the time.
It was equally handsome in the hatchback. Very well designed, such that one can’t tell whether the coupe or hatchback version arose first in the designer’s mind.
That generation, to my eye, was groundbreaking- not only for Japanese automobiles, but for Detroit as well. Consider its showroom competition: the Mustang II in its Cobra II period, the Camaro at its disco Nadir, pre-Smokey and the Bandit Firebird/Trans Am. They all seemed rococo and bloated compared to this design. For me, it was “Suddenly, it’s 1980!”
+1 Agree completely. Plus, you can include the Datsun 240/280, Honda Prelude and Mazda RX-7 as masterstroke Japanese designs, from that era. Compared to the depressing Monzas and Mustang II, this is when I knew, I’d always consider buying Japanese.
I’m going to have to disagree. I felt the previous generation “mini-Mustang” was far more attractive, in both notchback and hatchback form. This generation managed to combine the lack of surface detail of 80s “aero” with none of the sharp creases of GM’s “sheer look.”
The beltine dipping down below the cowl and hood line did it no favors – the “sow belly” line on the door of the BMW 1-series reminds me a lot of it – and the bright B-pillar makes it look like a targa, which is only an acceptable look for an actual targa top.
The one thing I can say is that this generation integrated the 5-mph bumpers better than the previous. But the Celica was more often unattractive than it was attractive, and this has the distinction of being the first unattractive one.
Toyota has a history of gawky or bland performance cars. The only really attractive ones I can think of are:
2000GT
Celica (first gen)
MR2 (second gen)
…with MAYBE the Supra MkIV and AE86 Corolla GT-S liftback thrown in. Even the Supra was odd, with the godawful “surprised” looking headlamps that became all the rage after the 96-2000 Civic adopted them.
Sorry, I’ve never thought any of CALTY’s production car efforts were any good. They managed to run the gamut from bland to weird without ever finding true beauty.
Dig the color, though.
Probably the only Toyota that can’t be accused of being bland.
Oh man, are you going to hear it! I will defer to others, who will comment. But you can certainly start with the MR-2.
I forgot about the MR-2. The first two generations were awesome, the second gen being my favorite. The third gen seemed too much like a Honda S2000/Mazda Miata copy. The Supra was an interesting car as well. Unfortunately Toyota seems to be getting away from making interesting cars.
Yeah, the last interesting one to me was the manual tranny final gen Celica GT-S. The TC might have been a contender, but consistent reports of non-sportiness in handling and feel keep it stuck in the boring pretender pack
You don’t find the FR-S interesting?
I really like this model of Celica, of course I prefer the first gen “daruma” coupe more, but the 2nd gen coupe is probably my 3rd choice (I have a soft spot for the 4th gen too).
I’d like to get hold of one of these as my next project, but they’re pretty rare down here in NZ, I guess because there weren’t many NZ new, and it was before the days of the used Japanese import floodgates being opened……