As someone who’s intrigued by special editions, my eyes immediately fell on this car’s stripes. Racing stripes on a Celica – yes, this was a package made to commemorate Toyota’s sponsorship of the United States Grand Prix. But temper your expectations: Despite its racing connection, this was little more than a subtle appearance and trim package. Still, it’s an exciting find for those who like rare versions of common cars. This car’s excellent condition was a bonus as well. Only 600 examples were made, and after 45 years, the surviving examples have already taken the checkered flag of daily service and are now mostly in retirement.
Though the USGP Limited Edition was an obscure offering, it resulted from merging a successful car with a fruitful corporate sponsorship. We’ll look at the Celica itself first.
Debuting for 1971, Celica expanded Toyota’s offerings into the popular sporty coupe market. It was a shrewd move, as plenty of buyers sought a sporty, affordable car – the Celica captured much of the same magic as Ford’s mid ’60s Mustang.
Toyota’s Grand Prix sponsorship showed up quickly in Celica ads.
By 1976, Toyota sold over 100,000 Celicas annually in the United States. Toyota’s reputation for reliability, combined with Celica’s value, helped these hearty sales. While Celica crept into the North American sporty car market based on those types of attributes, Toyota itself undertook an additional approach to bolster its sporting credibility. In 1976, Toyota became a sponsor of the United States Grand Prix (USGP).
This wasn’t just a casual sponsorship that involved donating money and placing ads in race programs, although that occurred too. Toyota furnished Celica pace cars as well as Land Cruiser and pickup support vehicles for the USGP’s two main races (Watkins Glen and Long Beach). Toyota dealers on both coasts sold discount tickets to these races, as well, as shown in the above ad.
Racing was, of course, great publicity. Toyota’s corporate marketing manager said “Participating in the world of racing not only is fun, we feel it has been reasonably successful in getting our product more closely associated with the automotive sports.” That association became hard to miss. In 1979, the Watkins Glen race was officially named the Toyota Grand Prix of the United States.
Perhaps more noticeable to the general public, Toyota also sponsored celebrity races before the Grand Prix, where a group of celebrities raced against professional race drivers in identical Toyotas. The races were handicapped (celebrities got a head start) to encourage a close finish. Football player-turned-actor Shelly Novack won the inaugural 1977 Long Beach pro/celebrity race, edging out pro driver Sam Posey.
The celebrity races became popular events and ran annually (always in Toyotas) through 2016. Whatever investment Toyota made in four decades of celebrity races undoubtedly paid off, as this became excellent publicity. The sight of famous people having fun in Toyotas was pure marketing gold.
Celica itself continued to populate American driveways in ever-increasing numbers. Toyota’s second-generation Celica, introduced for 1978 and styled at the carmaker’s California design studio, sold over 600,000 US examples during its four-year run. Available in sport coupe or liftback form, the Celica provided a contemporary appearance that borrowed from American, European and Japanese design cues. Toyota got lots of mileage out of the Grand Prix pace car imagery, as well.
Under the hood, Celica didn’t break much new ground (its 2.2-liter 95-hp engine was carried over from the previous generation), but between the car’s contemporary appearance, quality build standards and excellent drivability, consumers raced to buy them. During the 1978-81 generation, Celicas accounted for nearly one-third of all US Toyota sales.
Second-generation Celicas came in ST and GT variants (all Liftbacks were GTs), with the GT offering extra amenities and wider tires. Visually the biggest change in this generation came for 1980 when Celica received rectangular headlights, restyled tail lamps, and upgraded interiors. These changes caused the 1980 Celica to bear more than a bit of resemblance to the upmarket Celica Supra introduced the previous year.
The Supra’s success may have stirred up a desire among Toyota marketers for a factory-issued special edition Celica, something that hadn’t been offered since the model’s inception. The brand’s association with the United States Grand Prix provided an appropriate theme. Hence, the USGP Limited Edition was born.
Dealers nationwide received their first shipments of USGP Celicas in March 1980, just weeks ahead of the March 30 “Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.” The $750 package was indeed limited – Toyota only made 600 of these cars. Limited, however, didn’t mean flashy. The lower body stripes provide the only prominent clue to the car’s identity. That’s what I noticed when I first came across this well-preserved example – after all, how often does one see a car with 45-year-old tape graphics in good shape? In fact, all of the Limited Edition’s unique extras are still in good shape on this car, so we might as well circle the Celica and admire these little flourishes.
USGP Limited Edition cars came in either red, white or blue – Toyota produced 200 of each color. White and blue cars featured brown and orange stripes, while red examples carried the same design but in white and orange. Both color combinations pay homage to the graphics on Toyota’s Grand Prix pace cars. Toyota’s brochure simply states that the stripes “highlight Celica’s aerodynamic styling.”
Aluminum alloy wheels (optional on Celica GTs) came standard on the USGP cars – riding the same 185/70 HR14 size. These cars originally came equipped with white-letter tires to provide a bit of F1-car association, though this car doesn’t look too bad without them.
From this angle we can see the Celica’s long and low silhouette. These dimensions are subtly enhanced by a black B pillar, a Limited Edition feature that replaced the standard Celica’s bright panel. While the bright panel was distinctive, the black panel matches the A pillar (black on all Celicas) for a more unified appearance.
The USGP cars had a grille unique just to this model. Instead of the standard Celica grille with six horizontal slats, the Limited Edition featured a honeycomb grille sunken a bit into the car’s nose. Curiously, Toyota provided no USGP-specific exterior badging; these cars displayed a GT badge on the grille…
…and another on the rear. This angle does show one additional USGP-specific accessory. Those mud guards – still in good condition after all these years – came standard with the USGP package.
One may assume that a race-inspired special edition would focus on performance enhancements, or at least racy appearance add-ons. However, most of the USGP package’s goodies were found inside. Though hard to see here due to the seat covers, USGP Celicas came with ivory-colored vinyl upholstery with contrasting black piping.
While the upholstery was eye-catching, it was probably the audio system that provided the most robust selling point for customers. Toyota endowed these Limited Edition cars with the highest caliber of early 1980s car-audio componentry. A special tuner was augmented by a cassette deck and a graphic equalizer, all with a brushed aluminum look popular at the time.
Next to the equalizer, a small plaque with an F1 car proclaims “LIMITED EDITION USGP” – this is the only identifier on the car declaring what it actually is.
We can clearly see our featured car’s knitted vinyl upholstery in the rear. The rear seating area of these cars was obviously… snug. In the Sports Coupe Era, however, few complained. We simply settled into the contoured seats, scrunched up our legs, lowered our heads a bit if we were tall, and enjoyed the ride.
Speaking of the Sports Coupe Era, when spotted in the wild nowadays, these cars are usually dwarfed by whatever is parked around them. Not this time. Here we’re treated to a 45-year old car parked next to a relatively recent equivalent, in this case a 2008 Hyundai Tiburon. One can see how sports coupe styling has changed over the years: Though sharing a similar wheelbase and length, the newer car is taller, significantly wider… and heavier. Personally, I prefer the open greenhouse and long-hood look of the Celica.
Overall, the USGP edition was a mere blip both in Celica’s 36-year model run and in Toyota’s longstanding participation in motorsports. These days, with Toyota not just a racing sponsor, but also a participant, the brand’s early US Grand Prix sponsorship seems a bit quaint. However, the sponsorships, pace cars and celebrity races were all elements in building the brand’s stature in the US market. And while easy to overlook, the USGP Limited Edition Celica, with its racing stripes and graphic equalizer, can claim a tiny bit of this success.
Photographed in Arlington, Virginia in October 2024.
Related Reading:
1980 Toyota Celica GT: From Zero To America’s Favorite In Under Ten Years by Eric703
1979 Toyota Celica ST: Trans-Pacific Partnership by Tatra87
1979 Toyota Celica Supra: “Plush, Lush; The Powerful Pleasure” Or The Lexus Of Celicas by Paul Niedermeyer
Speaking of the Celica, I spotted this clip from an Argentinian movie titled Comandos Azules where a Celica chase a Dodge GTX.
https://imcdb.org/movie_168598-Comandos-azules.html
Fun but what a HUGE difference between ths and Hollywood’s worst .
-Nate
The Celica is my favorite classic Toyota.
In yellow or light brown I would buy one right now.
Nice work Eric, finding and recognizing this Celica, and its notable status as an important and rare factory package. Highlighting Toyota’s burgeoning racing association. I’m sure, I would have read about this package in Motor Trend at the time. And would have almost immediately forgot about it. The striping and packaging, quite discreet for 1980. Might have easily assumed it was an anonymous dealer-applied tape kit. Then and today.
I remember Shelley Novack appearing in Streets of San Francisco. He was a decent actor. And him passing away, at a very young age.
Was never particularly excited about the styling of these Celica hatchbacks. There was a sufficient generic quality to their design.
A veritable unicorn. These Celicas have rapidly fallen out of the DD-beater scene here, but finding this special edition in such condition is pretty amazing. I remember Toyota’s sponsorship but had forgotten about these limited edition Celicas.
Now you have done it Eric. Reminded me of the yellow 79 Celica GT LIftback I almost had if not for the Tubbs Fire. Every time I see one, very rare, I think of that burned out hulk.
I love the rare limited edition and the fabulous condition! I actually love the whole car.
The biggest difference I see between old and new is wheel sizes. Those big modern wheels disguise the girth of the newer car in your photos.
Pretty nice, especially the subdued graphics .
I’m not a bit hatchback fan, the regular Celica looks better to me, I do remember when these where everywhere .
-Nate
I especially like the vintage audio system with lots of physical buttons. Some will say that the equalizer is as dangerous as fumbling with a modern screen , at least no menu to roll into: direct in your face function. Lots of glass aera too but ‘B’ pillar directly where you want to look outside when sitting in the back.
There’s likely some truth to this. My sister’s high school boyfriend bought a wrecked 1982 Celica in order to rebuild. It was nearly new, and the story about the accident was that the young woman driving the Celica was adjusting the equalizer and ran off the road in the process, hitting a tree. I can’t 100% vouch that the story was true, but at the time, no one doubted it.
As Paul mentioned about Eugene, I just don’t see this generation on the road anymore. Newer RWD Celeica’s have some “JDM/drifter” presence, and I occasionally see a clean 1st gen on a dry sunny day, but not these which were really popular once upon a time.
I was a spectator at the 1977 Long Beach GP but I don’t recall having much interest in the pro-am Celica race. I vividly recall Mario Andretti’s win and seeing the 6 wheel Tyrrell car.
I was there, as well—a fun time. And my memory of it is about the same.