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The look is young. The feel is light. The dramatically sloped 2000 Toyota Celica GT-S, a hatchback of Ferrari pretensions, weighs 2,500 pounds.

The driver’s seat is low and sculpted, as is the front passenger’s seat. The rear seats are a joke, as they tend to be in four-seat cars that should be two-seaters.

Edgy design dominates the front passenger cabin, a mixture of Sharper Image and “Star Trek” influences. Is that the church, the steeple or a pointed console designed for people?

It’s the latter. No wonder. The car’s styling comes via Calty Design Research Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif.

They do things differently in California, which is why mainstream America might find the new Celica a bit over the top. This is not a consensus car. It’s meant to stir things up.

The new Celica’s Ferrari bias is no accident. Nor is its price, which is surprisingly low, assuming that Toyota’s dealers forgo the irritating habit of sticking non-value-added premiums on anything that mildly captures the public’s imagination.

The intent is to recapture the youthful enthusiasm generated by the first-generation Celica–the then-radically styled 1971 Celica ST. How to do that? Offer an eye-catching car of outstanding quality and reasonable performance at a modest price. The avant-garde young will buy it–just as they bought the first Ford Mustang and the Mazda Miata.

Such cars usually remain niche players in an automaker’s lineup, but they are as important as neon lights in an entertainment district. They attract attention, which, believe it or not, Toyota sorely needs at this point.

Toyota is making money. But in the United States, the average age of its buyers is about 45. Those people buy adult-mobiles, such as the Toyota Avalon and the lush-plush offerings from Toyota’s luxury Lexus group.

The problem is, the Avalon and Lexus models aren’t seedling cars. They are meant to hold on to market share, not build it. Seedling cars, such as the new Celica, are built to pull in young, influential buyers who can help the company grow.

The Celica will help in that endeavor.

It took me a while to get used to the car, and then finally to like it. That’s because I was trapped by memories of the big, rear-drive Celicas of the early 1980s.

The new, front-drive Celica is tiny by comparison. In one sense, it has the light feel of an econobox. But that impression quickly disappears on the highway. This baby can run!

Toyota dropped a 180-horsepower engine into the Celica GT-S, giving it an excellent power-to-weight ratio. The company also added a six-speed manual gearbox, a first for a Celica, and it beefed up the suspension system–MacPherson struts, offset springs and a solid roll bar up front with double wishbones in the rear.

I don’t know what insurance companies will think about the car, considering its power and its intended market (20- to 30-year-olds). Insurers tend not to want to have fun.

But maybe the children of the people who provide the coverage can start some kind of a lobbying campaign.

2000 Toyota Celica GT-S

Complaint: I frequently had to shift to fifth gear for in-town driving (30-35 mph zones). A bit disconcerting.

Praise: The little thing runs like crazy on the open highway.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Excellent small-car ride. Excellent highway acceleration. Dances with curves.

Brakes: Power front and rear discs (ventilated front). Four-wheel anti-locks are optional. Ka-ching!

Engines: The Celica GT-S comes with a 16-valve, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine designed to produce 180 horsepower at 7,600 rpm and 133 pound-feet of torque at 6,800 rpm. This model is equipped with Toyota’s Variable Valve Timing Lift-Intelligence control (VVTL-i), designed to reduce fuel consumption and tailpipe pollution without penalizing performance.

The base Celica GT gets a 140-horsepower version of that engine. A five-speed manual transmission goes with the base eng ine. Four-speed automatics are available with both power plants.

Capacities: The tested GT-S holds 14.5 gallons of fuel; premium unleaded is required.

Mileage: Mileage in the GT-S with six-speed manual worked out to about 30 miles per gallon in mostly highway driving.

Price: Base price on the tested Celica GT-S is $21,650. Dealer’s invoice on the base model is $18,748. Price as tested is $22,660, including $555 for anti-lock brakes and a $455 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: Compare with Acura Integra, Honda Prelude, Mitsubishi Eclipse and Audi TT.