Group B regulations required manufacturers to produce and sell a minimum of 200 road-going examples before a car could be homologated for competition. Toyota, working in conjunction with Toyota Team Europe based in Cologne, built 200 road cars and 20 competition-specification evolution variants, alongside a new turbocharged engine developed specifically for the programme.
The competition car was powered by the 4T-GTE unit: a 2,090 cc water-cooled four-cylinder engine with twin overhead camshafts and eight valves, charged by a KKK K27 turbocharger. In competition trim the engine produced up to 370 bhp at 8,000 rpm and 430 Nm of torque at 5,500 rpm. Power went to the rear wheels through a Hewland five-speed gearbox. Dimensions included a wheelbase of 2,500 mm and overall length of 4,284 mm. The car weighed approximately 1,100 kg and ran on Pirelli tyres on Speedline wheels.
The decision to retain rear-wheel drive was a calculated one. On loose, slippery European stages, all-wheel-drive machines such as the Audi Quattro had a decisive traction advantage that a two-wheel-drive car could not overcome. Toyota targeted the African calendar instead, where mechanical reliability over thousands of kilometres was the decisive factor and where the rear-wheel-drive layout imposed less of a competitive penalty.
The TA64 made its World Rally Championship debut at the 1983 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland, where Juha Kankkunen finished sixth. The African results told a different story from the outset.
Björn Waldegård won the Ivory Coast Rally in 1983. In 1984, Waldegård won the Safari Rally, giving Toyota its first victory at that event. The 1985 season produced victories at both the Safari Rally and the Ivory Coast Rally. In 1986 Waldegård won the Ivory Coast Rally for the second time, while the Safari Rally victory again went to the Toyota effort, completing what the manufacturer described as a clean sweep: three Safari victories and three Ivory Coast victories across the car's three full seasons.
The first WRC win had come at the 1982 Rally of New Zealand in a predecessor model, a Celica 2000GT driven by Waldegård. The TA64 then extended the Celica's African record to a total of six WRC wins in Africa across the two cars.
One specific TA64 — the car Waldegård drove to the 1986 Ivory Coast Rally victory — was stored at Toyota Team Europe's Cologne facility after the season ended and remained there, largely forgotten, until 2000 when an invitation from the Goodwood Festival of Speed prompted the team to restore it to running order. Waldegård drove it at Goodwood in 2012 and also at the Daun historic rally in Germany from 2002 to 2004. Following a crash at the final Daun event the car was stripped and rebuilt over twenty months.
Group B was abolished by the FIA at the end of 1986 following fatal accidents at the Rally de Portugal and the Tour de Corse. The Celica Twin-Cam Turbo's competition career ended with the formula. The technical work done during the TA64 programme — particularly in engine development, turbocharger management, and the precision of preparation methods at Toyota Team Europe — was carried forward into Toyota's subsequent four-wheel-drive rally programme. The Celica GT-Four, competing in Group A from 1987, drew on that foundation and ultimately delivered Toyota three WRC Manufacturers' titles and four Drivers' Championships.