Was Toyota Celica ST185 the ultimate WRC car? – 'It didn't miss a beat'

The Toyota Celica ST185 has an unmatched record in the WRC – Nicky Grist and engineer Don Woolfield remember a superlative car

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The Toyota Celica ST185 has five WRC titles to its name in total

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Four WRC cars have taken drivers to three or more consecutive titles. Sébastien Loeb did it with the Citroen Xsara and Citroen C4, as well the ‘other Seb’ – Ogier – and his Volkswagen Polo.

Before these examples though, the first ever car piloted to three drivers’ titles was the Toyota Celica ST185.

What marks the 185 out is that this machine’s trio of titles were claimed by three different drivers, with three very different styles: Carlos Sainz, Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol.

This unique achievement makes a strong case for the 185 to be the ultimate rally car, an off-road weapon to suit any approach.

Thirty years after it took its first title in ’92 with Sainz, Nicky Grist – who co-drove a 185 in Kankkunen’s ‘93 title year and now owns one – says “it didn’t miss a beat – it really could do anything.”

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Sainz and team and issues with the 185 to begin with, but clinched a first win for the car at Safari ’92

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Toyota had already won 11 rallies with the 165, which carried Sainz to his first title in 1990, but the car had its problems. Heavy suspension and heating issues made it an imperfect design, with the Japanese manufacturer ultimately losing out in both championships to Kankkunen and Lancia the following season.

The 185 was developed to eliminate the weaknesses of its Group A predecessor. Its low-slung chassis that housed a 2-litre engine putting 300bhp through four-wheel drive. But the car wasn’t just fast – what was just as key to its success was almost bulletproof reliability, which helped it garner 16 wins en route to those three titles.

Toyota left no stone unturned in looking to wrest back superiority with its new 185.

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Sainz en route to home win at Rally Cataluyna

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However, as Toyota’s then-mechanic/car builder at the time Don Woolfield explains, the new and apparently improved 185 design came with problems of its own.

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“The new engineers were all ex-Audi, and were designing this new aluminium suspension concept, switching from steel” he remembers of a stressful pre-‘92 development period.

“The biggest problem they found with heavier steel design was ‘pad knock-off’ [the brake pads being forced progressively further away from the brake disc], so therefore they wanted to go light.

“They ran a bit behind time, we had a few hiccups, but we had to just keep going. When we launched the car, it still hadn’t even properly been shaken down yet.

“That’s why, if you look at all the early results for Sainz in 92, we struggled with that car – just couldn’t get the suspension to work.”

It says something for Toyota Team Europe (as its Europe Competitions arm was known) that it was still achieving decent results in spite of being mystified by its own issues. Sainz took the car to second on its debut at the ’92 Monte, and won in the fourth round of the year in Kenya – a renowned car-breaker.

“Everyone kept thinking, ‘The chassis is too stiff, the chassis is too stiff,’ but it was actually the aluminium shock tubes flexing, then going solid as a result,” says Woolfield.

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Auriol piloting the 185 to win at Monte ’93

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“It was basically a slow realisation. We bumbled along, we did all sorts of strange stuff I’m still not allowed to tell you about now, that people didn’t know about.”

Woolfield also credits a change in the engineering staff midway through ’92 which brought the car’s first success.

“New engineers Michel Nandan and Gerard Zyzik came in and developed new steel parts to put on the suspension – to make it more reliable, stronger and work properly.” he says.

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“Once we got that sorted, it was leaps and bounds from there.”

Toyota coming good helped Sainz to his second title at the end of that ’92 season, winning a three-way shootout with team-mate Didier Auriol and Kankkunen at Rally GB to claim both the event and a second world title.

It was at the location of the 185’s first win – the Safari Rally earlier in the ’92 season – complete with unforgiving savannah roads, billowing ‘fesh-fesh’ dust and churning mud, that Nicky Grist first became acquainted with the 185, testing in preparation for a one-off appearance with Mikael Ericsson.

“I was seeing road conditions that I’ve never seen before,” he remembers. “I just couldn’t quite believe what we had to cope with – but the car didn’t miss a beat.

“Nothing broke, everything stayed together. My whole confidence for the car was built around what we were going through in Kenya. I cast my mind to all the events that were in Europe thought, ‘Well my God, this car could do anything!’

Grist and Ericsson would put in a solid performance to come home fourth, putting him in the mind of Kankkunen, who needed a co-driver early on in ‘93 when his usual partner Juha Piironen was sidelined with serious illness.

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Grist and Kankkunen celebrate ’93 title

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About to leave for a golfing holiday, Grist had to swap clubs for a crash helmet and make his way to South America at the last minute.

“I went to Argentina and arrived late, he’d already started the recce,” says Grist. “We led from start to finish and I won my first world championship event! That was it. You know, the 185 was my car and my favourite car – we went from strength to strength from there really.”

Grist and Kankkunen would go on to clinch a fourth drivers’ title for the Finn – then a record. The co-driver credits that WRC crown in no small part to the improvements on the 185.

“There were several modifications to cure all the issues they had with the 165,” he says.

“The biggest difference was that you knew they could go to the hottest rallies in places like Greece and push as hard as they want and never really get into the red zone. The car would keep performing at its best all the time.

“The whole look of the front of this rally car was a lot more open, big vents in the bonnet to allow air to flow through the radiator and out the bonnet.

“There were additional water sprays on the car to spray to the radiator when charged temperatures and water temperatures were starting to get high.”

Woolfield adds that a combination of factors simply made the car too strong for even its Ford-backed rivals.

“The build quality of the cars got better because we had more standardisation and parts, plus we were testing like crazy, new developments were coming on real fast. We were building a new car every two weeks.

“We also had two really good drivers, Kankkunen and Auriol, who worked so well together, we could just develop the car and just get faster and faster.

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Kankkunen helps Auriol celebrate his ’94 title

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“When Auriol won Monte in ’93, it was like someone had switched the lights on for us.”

Having two pilots that could compete at the front was key to Toyota clinching the drivers’ and constructor’s double in ’93 and again in ’94 (with Auriol).

Woolfield felt the flexibility of the 185 helped both drivers to fight at the sharp end.

“They just said the car was nice, you know?” he comments. “Auriol was more of an understeer type driver and Kankkunen was more of an oversteer guy, but the car was that adjustable we could set up to whatever they wanted.

“Once we’d ironed out all the bugs it was pretty hard to break it.”

Grist concurs when pondering its best qualities:

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185’s unique achievements make it a standalone car in WRC history

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“I think it’s probably the reliability and functionality of the rally car. Toyota didn’t build the prettiest cars in terms of the layout, there were lots of wiring looms and bits sticking out, the goal was just to be as quick as you possibly could – and it just kept going.”

As alluded to by Woolfield above, Toyota eventually pushed the limits too far, being disqualified from ’95 and banned for ’96 for an illegal trick on its turbo.

Prior to that happening though, Grist says that the manufacturer’s full on approach made being part of the team a thrill, and that the 185 was the physical manifestation.

“It was it really was a fantastic team, where there were no holds barred,” he says. “Anything that needed to be done was done.”

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