The Toyota Corolla GR is on its way, giving us an incredible performance machine to make up for keeping the GR Yaris away from our shores.
When you think of the Corolla, you don’t think of it as a hot hatch, fun, or performance-oriented. This car has been one of the most reliable and affordable small cars in the world for several decades. Now, Toyota allows the Gazoo Racing team to unleash the true potential of this street-legal racing machine, which makes it one of the most hotly anticipated cars coming to the market in several years.
Why did we have to wait an extra year for this car?
The chip shortage didn’t keep the hottest Corolla to ever hit the market from being ready for 2022. It was Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda who delayed this car by a year. He insisted on signing off on the final version, and when it wasn’t to his liking, he sent it back to the GR team to get it right. Toyoda is an accomplished race driver, which gives him the expertise required to make sure this car feels like a car you’d want to race around on the street.
This isn’t only a trumped-up Yaris GR
The new Toyota Corolla GR isn’t just a larger version of the Yaris. If it were, the performance numbers would suffer. Instead, this car is more powerful than its smaller sibling, adding more horsepower and torque to the mix. The GR team boosted the 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine to 300 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque. This makes the engine under the hood of this performance-oriented Corolla the most powerful production three-cylinder engine in the world.
Some of the power for this system comes from the impressive and efficient exhaust system. The system uses a three-piece, three-tip muffler to be better than the version used in the smaller Yaris model. The rest of the power upgrades come from the software that ensures optimal combustion during operation.
Most drivers will likely use midrange power when pushing the car hard around the corners. Peak horsepower is achieved at 6,500 rpm, and maximum torque occurs between 3,000 and 5,550 rpm. This means you’ll use midrange power and peak torque while pushing this new hot hatch around a track or through a canyon run. For most drivers, where they achieve the highest level of horsepower doesn’t matter as much as how much fun they can have on the road.
Could the Corolla GR be faster than the Yaris GR?
The larger car has a better weight-to-power ratio, which might be a bit surprising. This could mean that you can race faster during springs and on hot laps with the Corolla. The power-to-weight ratio of the hot Corolla is 10.8 compared to 11.1 for the Yaris version. The number for the Corolla is even better than that of one of the most successful rally cars in history. The last-generation Subaru WRX STI has a weight-to-power ratio of 11.3, which puts it behind these two Toyota models.
Will demand bring changes to this Toyota?
Similar to the Yaris, this high-performance Corolla only comes with a six-speed manual transmission and the GR-Four AWD system. The transmission has rev-matching, and both of these systems are stronger than on the Yaris to handle the added power and weight of the Corolla. Unfortunately, for those drivers who don’t know how to drive a stick shift car, this could be a problem. Toyota hasn’t ruled out the possibility of adding an automatic transmission, but demand will need to be high enough to warrant adding a less-engaging transmission for this car.
How fast is this new Toyota hot hatch?
Unfortunately, Toyota hasn’t given us a quoted sprint time for the Corolla GR just yet. That said, its better weight-to-power ratio should allow the larger car to be faster to 60 mph and to the end of a quarter-mile run. The GR Yaris hits 60 mph in only 5.5 seconds, which should be a little faster for the new Corolla version. If you’re looking at these hot hatches as rally cars, the WRX STI was never as fast as the Yaris. The quickest time for the Subaru was 5.7 seconds to 60 mph.
The performance model is a larger hatchback
The hardware required to make this version of the Corolla a high-performance model requires it to be bigger than the traditional Toyota Corolla Hatchback. The Corolla GR is 1.5 inches longer, 2.4 inches wider, and 0.1 inches taller than the standard version of this car. The added performance gear also makes it 250 pounds heavier than the Corolla Hatchback. That doesn’t seem to matter, though; this new high-performance edition brings more than enough power to be a lot of fun and give you the experience desired out on the road.
Are you looking for a special edition of this Corolla?
The Circuit Edition of this performance car is only around for one year. The Core model heads into production this year, with the special edition model following closely. The Circuit Edition model brings a carbon roof, a bulging vented hood, larger rear spoiler, artificial suede-trimmed sport seats, and a shift knob with the signature of Morizo, which is the racing name used by Akio Toyoda. This means he’s officially signed off on this car being an excellent street racing machine.
Is it the right time for a new hot hatch?
Did Toyota somehow miss out on the hot hatch world? It wasn’t that long ago that we had some amazing hot hatches, such as the Ford Focus RS, Mitsubishi Evo, and Subaru WRX STI, on the roads. All three of these cars have gone by the wayside and no longer compete in this class. Additionally, the automotive market, including Toyota, is moving toward electric vehicles and away from gas-powered machines. Of course, it’s entirely possible that Toyota has perfect timing and will take over this class with this new Corolla GR.
Does this new Toyota Corolla GR entice you to get in and push it hard on the road or track? Will this be the performance car you want to drive when it arrives?
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