The Toyota Celica Cruising Deck Was A Speedboat For The Road

You may have seen Lexus is once again back in the game of building yachts, announcing a new LY680 five years on from the LY650 of 2019 (although we’re not sure any were ever built). Long before either of those, parent company Toyota had already toyed with the boat idea - well, sort of.

This is the Toyota Celica Cruising Deck, a concept first revealed at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show. Based on the then-new T231 Celica, the Cruising Deck had been inspired by the CAL-1 - shown at the same show in 1977, taking a similar approach to the Celica of the time.

To make the Cruising Deck, Toyota stripped out the back seats of the T231 as well as the rear of its roofline, creating a pseudo pick-up truck in the process. In the new-found open space, it placed a foldable rumble seat which could be raised to turn the flatbed into a rear seating area.

Along with the boat-like railings on either side of the rumble seats, the Celica Cruising Deck gained a gigantic rear spoiler similar to one you’d find on a speedboat too. Amusingly, this also served as a mounting point for the seat headrests. Rather than dropping the boot opening down, it was hinged to the side like a regular door.

Not content with simply adding a new rear deck to the Celica, Toyota also painted it an appropriately late-’90s bright yellow paint finish, while adding a new body kit and the shiniest chrome alloys perhaps ever placed on a car by a manufacturer.

Even the driver would get some new goodies courtesy of a new blue leather centre console, plus a matching steering wheel and carpets. There was a window that could be opened to chat with those sat out in the back, too.

It also came with a matching trailer built to carry jet skis, with the trailer itself having an identical rear end and wheels to the Celica.

What didn’t change was the 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine, 2ZZ-GE engine - producing 187bhp and paired up with a six-speed manual. Perhaps not speedboat power, but certainly the overall vibe was there.