Toyota finally revealed its latest GR sportscar, the first-ever GR Corolla. The latest addition to the Japanese carmaker’s GR-badged vehicles brings the performance, handling, and functionality in a souped-up hot hatch.
The GR Corolla was designed and engineered by the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team, allowing the company’s tuners to insert race-bred DNA into one of Toyota’s most iconic nameplates.
“With professional drivers, experts, and Morizo (Toyota President Akio Toyoda) at the wheel, GR Corolla was tested repeatedly at some of Japan’s leading circuits, including Fuji Speedway, Suzuka, and Tsukuba Circuit. In addition, the GR team carried out heavy-duty dirt and snow driving with a Japanese Rally Championship driver. No road was left unturned in the process, so engineers and technicians could sharpen acceleration and control worthy of the GR name,” said Toyota in a press release.
Under the hood of the GR Corolla is a lightweight, compact-yet-powerful G16E-GTS turbocharged, direct/port-injected three-cylinder engine which allows the headstrong hatchback to put out 300 horses with 370Nm of almost instantaneous torque. It’s mated to a six-speed intelligent manual transmission (iMT) with rev-matching engineered to accommodate high torque levels.
Despite sharing the same power plant with the GR Yaris, the GR Corolla offers a boosted power output thanks to an improved engine exhaust efficiency by way of a three-piece muffler with a valve capped off with brushed stainless steel tips.
In a teaser revealed by Toyota just days ahead of the GR Corolla’s launch, a photo was shown bearing the de-bossed words “GR-FOUR.” Toyota now confirms that this meant that the GR Corolla will feature the brand’s sports GR-Four all-wheel drive.
The all-wheel-drive system was developed by Toyota in collaboration with Gazoo Racing World Rally Team and was honed by WRC drivers. This setup delivers exceptional levels of traction and control with engineering designed to optimize drive power to each wheel, while also being simple and lightweight.
According to Toyota, the GR-Four system was designed for rally racing and will give would-be owners of the GR Corolla the ability to adjust the car’s for when they’re driving on dirt, rain, or snow.
Stopping power will come from opposed, fixed-caliper disc brakes with ventilated and slotted rotors outfitted with four-piston aluminum calipers at the front. The rear features a pair of two-piston aluminum fixed-caliper disc brakes with ventilated rotors and red-painted calipers.
Accompanying its beefy engine and relatively powerful brakes are a suite of safety features that makes the GR Corolla a fun and safe car to drive. These include the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 which features a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, lane departure alert with steering assist and lane tracing assist, dynamic radar cruise control, automatic high beams, road sign assist, a rear-seat reminder, a blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, hill start assist control, and a one-year trial subscription to Toyota Safety Connect, among others.
The Toyota GR Corolla was also made to look the part with a wide and rigid body as well as functional and purposefully designed body kits. It rides on 18-inch, gloss-black, 15-spoke cast alloy wheels wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires.
Similarly, its interior emanates a performance-oriented look thanks to its newly-developed instrument cluster with a 12.3-inch color Multi-Information Display (MID) that has a GR meter with 4WD mode, turbo pressure, gear position indicator, and tachometer. It also has a GR-branded start-stop button, aluminum sport pedals, two USB charging ports, one 12V auxiliary power outlet, lighted footwells, front console tray, and rear console box.
Each of the GR Corollas is made in a dedicated GR factory in Motomachi, Japan.
Toyota said that the GR Corolla will be offered in two trims: the standard Core and the limited Circuit Edition. The latter (photo shown below) will be a launch-year-exclusive and will come with a forged carbon-fiber roof, vented bulge hood and a sporty rear spoiler, Brin Naub suede-trimmed sport seats with red accents, and a shift knob signed by Morizo himself.
Pricing of both trims are to be announced later this year.
Photos from Toyota
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