The Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 Group A became the TTE's new weapon at the start of the 1995 season, succeeding the Celica GT-Four ST165 and the Celica Turbo 4WD ST185. With the official Toyota team excluded from the championship at the end of 1995, the ST205 only had time to score one success at world level. Didier Auriol won the Tour of Corsica in May.
While Toyota was preparing its return to world rallying with the new Corolla from 1997, the year the new WRC regulations came into force, the factory-built Toyota Celica ST205s continued to be entered by various teams more or less supported by the brand, but also by the TTE for young hopefuls in the discipline. Such was the case with this Celica ST205, chassis #TC-544 (TC 357-544), entered for young Freddy Loix, a future official Toyota driver, on the 1997 Rally Finland and the 1997 Rally Australia.
#TC-544, registered K-AM 2735 on its two appearances in official colours in 1997, is one of the 24 Celica ST205 Gr.A cars officially built by the TTE and one of only 13 actually used by the official team in rallying.
Its best result in the World Rally Championship was the 7e place achieved by Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets during the 13e and penultimate round of the 1997 championship. It is in these Rally Australia colours that she now finds herself in MY Gallery.
Remaining the property of the TTE, #TC-544 was re-registered in Sweden in 2000 with the plate "RHW 424" to be driven on the South Swedish Rally by Mats Thorszelius, the nephew of Hans Thorszelius, Bjorn Waldegård's "historic" co-driver. Mats Thorszelius drove the car on the Nordvärmland Rally the following year. In 2008, chassis #TC-544 made its return to competition, for a long second career that took it mainly to Northern France and Belgium.
Between 2008 and 2013, #TC-544 racked up a number of top results in mainly regional events, thanks mainly to Belgium's Didier Duquesne, but also to Frenchman Laurent Bayard, who won the 2011 Rallye des Routes du Nord.
That same year, the Belgian François Duval was also at the wheel of the car, winning the RS Cul-des-Sarts on home soil.
After a final event in 2015 in the hands of Belgian driver Renzo Herpoel, #TC-544 was completely reconditioned and returned to its most emblematic livery, that of the Marlboro Toyota Castrol Belgium team with the #9 of Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets at the 1997 Rally Australia.
In these colours, this Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 Group A delighted spectators at the Alsace Rallye Festival 2023 and Eifel Festival 2024.
