This sporty Toyota from the Y2K era is a viable classic

• The Toyota Celica GT-S is a sporty hatchback coupe that is criminally overlooked.
• The engine was massaged by Yamaha to produce 180 horsepower and a sky-high redline.
• This example comes from a good year for the brand and has just over 50,000 miles on the odometer.

Yesterday’s pick from Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and driverpart of Hearst Autos) was a kind of rolling work of art, a 1967 Toyota 2000GT. Hand-built in very limited quantities by Yamaha, it can be said that this ultimate Japanese collector car does not really fit in with Toyota’s mass production, something for everyone mentality. Today’s find does that, but it also celebrates the partnership between Toyota and Yamaha.

Are a 2003 Toyota Celica GT-Sand that GT-S designation means something special under the hood. This car’s 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine is covered by a cylinder head designed in collaboration with Yamaha, meaning it’s good for 180 horsepower at a redline of 7,800 rpm. Paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, this is a car that requires some deft input to keep the revs on the boil for maximum pace. Lotus thought this engine was good enough for the Elise, so it was certainly good enough for a sporty small hatchback.

The generation of Celica that preceded this had evolved into a kind of over-engineered turbo engine, so this car was more of a return to the original concept. Aimed at younger buyers, it combined the practicality of a hatchback, a relatively low entry price and a lively chassis.

Toyota showed off improved examples of the seventh-generation Celica at the annual Pro/Celebrity race at Long Beach, an event that regularly turned into a pinball competition of sorts.

As a relatively affordable car, many of these Celicas did not survive their third or fourth owner. The fast and the furious came out two years after the seventh-generation car debuted, which meant a lot of would-be Dominic Torettos chopped up Celicas or over-revved them and blew up the oil pumps. TEAR. Gone way too soon, junior.

This car, on the other hand, had a single, clearly mechanically sympathetic owner for most of its life, and now has just 32,000 miles on the odometer. There are no stories on the CarFax, good maintenance records and just a few paint chips here and there. It was ordered with the “Promotional Package”, which included some aggressive aero-look cosmetics. In basic black, the look completely matches the car.

With its Pro/Am racing history and Yamaha connection, the Celica GT-S is an underrated performance car. For much less than a Lotus Elise, let alone an effectively unobtainium 2000GT, you can have a special little Toyota with a punchy engine and plenty of personality. If you’ve been an absolute saint this year, maybe Santa will bring you that 2000GT. For the rest of us everyday types, this Celica GT-S is no lump of coal.

The auction ends on December 26.

Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. He grew up on British cars, came of age in the golden age of Japanese sports compact performance, and started writing about cars and people in 2008. His special interest is in the intersection between man and machine, whether it concerns the racing career of Walter Cronkite or the half-century-long obsession of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to constantly buy Hot Wheels.