This 1990 Top Gear has Tiff Needell testing the GT-Four:
https://youtu.be/4MlP2j6mBD0?t=12
Celica, Celeeka, Serikah... Celica is three Japanese characters, SE, RI, and KA. Sure, the I is long, but it's pronounced e, not ee, and the emphasis is flat across all syllables. Also, the R is like a mix of R and L, so, serihka. You can hear it in Japanese Celica ads.
That pointless trivia out of the way, this video review starts out with an acknowledgement of the Celica's rounded body styling. The fifth generation Celica is the first mass produced car with this kind of modern design language; it doesn't look out of place in 2021, whereas the fourth generation does have an old-school 80s look.
Tiff Needell both lauds and dings the Celica for its refinement, which I suppose is the magic power the British have--the ability to take both sides of an argument while being unstintingly polite and erudite about it.
He also characterizes the GT-Four as a grand tourer, which I find both appropriate and odd at the same time. If the GT-Four is a grand tourer, it's one of the least grand grand tourers ever made. That said, I've really enjoyed the longer country drives I've taken in mine.
He summed up the GT-Four's pros as performance (huh...the Celica pretty much doesn't compare well to other cars of its era and class--maybe he means relative performance compared to other Celicas), comfort (interesting), and safety, and its cons as styling (the styling was polarizing, for sure), lack of responsiveness (maybe body roll with the stock chassis), and price--no surprise about price.
The GT-Four went for 22,380 pounds in 1990--equivalent to $64,500 2021 dollars! Quite costly given what it is, though performance and technology has certainly democratized higher performance in the 30 years since then. I wonder what kind of Celica Toyota could build in 2021 with a $65,000 sticker.
The comparison review of the MR2 is also interesting as contrast.
