Following this menacing, but faceless car was the four-eyed Celica.  This added to Toyota's glory, winning WRC championships. In the hands of Spaniard Carlos Sainz, the Celica blazed unforgettably across the desert and plowed through water like a vehicle possessed.  A blight on Toyota's record was that the team was stripped of points and banned for a year for cheating.  Still, this is the car that you can drive in Sega Rally. 

Despite the rally-champion image, road-car Celicas were not that exceptional to own or drive.  The top US model featured only a 2.2 liter inline-4 that put out a languid 130 bhp @ 5400 rpm and 20 kg-m. of torque @4400 rpm.  The engine was torquey down low but could not deliver much acceleration past 5000 rpm.  If you've driven the original 16-valve Corolla GL sold here-and who hasn't-then you know what this feels like.

Thus the need to rejuvenate this sports car.  A good start is the 2000 Celica's radical exterior styling.  The car looks stunning from the front quarter view, with large triangular eyes flanking sharp creases and a large air intake in the car's hood.  A sharp fold runs from the side mirrors to merge with the hatch.  Sadly, as with most new cars, the rear doesn't live up to the front.   It's awkward and looks like a Lego model hastily slapped together.

The hood air intake leads not to a turbo but to a normally-aspirated 1.8 liter engine.  If this was the same 2.2 that was simply de-stroked then this car would be in trouble.  However, the 1.8 is now topped off with Toyota's VVT-i (Variable-Valve Timing-intelligent) system.  This is different from Honda's VTEC as there is no transition point to wilder cam profiles.  Rather, a set of gears varies the valve timing throughout the rev range to enable the engine to deliver good bottom and middle-range grunt, and yet not run out of breath at higher revs.