Toyota GR Corolla revealed early

Toyota’s highly strung Honda Civic Type R rival uses uprated version of GR Yaris’s acclaimed powertrain.

The new Toyota GR Corolla will be officially revealed very soon, but new details published early by Toyota US confirm it will use a heavily uprated version of the Toyota GR Yaris’s powertrain.

The long-awaited entry to Toyota’s expanding Gazoo Racing performance line-up has previously been shown wearing the division’s trademark multicoloured camouflage and with its overall design mostly obscured from view, but these latest images show it completely unwrapped.

It features a much more aggressive body design in line with its performance billing, with an expansive front grille, new bonnet vents, a chunky rear spoiler, flared arches and triple-exit exhausts the most obvious differentiators over the standard Toyota Corolla. Performance alloy wheels and beefy brakes round out the visual overhaul, but unlike the hot Yaris it retains a pair of rear doors.

It uses the same powertrain as its Yaris sibling, but with power hiked up from 192kW to 224kW – making this more a rival to the Volkswagen Golf R than the Volkswagen Golf GTI – and torque has been boosted slightly to 370Nm.

Power is sent to both axles through a six-speed manual gearbox, as in the GR Yaris, with an IMT (intelligent manual transmission) function which essentially serves as a rev matching function for smoother downshifts. Meanwhile, torque vectoring functionality can vary power across the axles from 50/50 to 30/70 either way, to optimise traction in all conditions. 

Toyota has yet to confirm performance details of the GR Corolla, but a 0-100km/h time nudging 5.0 seconds looks to be well within reach. 

Australia will launch the Corolla but the timing has not been confirmed. All teasers – and these latest details – so far have come from the US, where the GR Yaris is not available, following the withdrawal of the standard Yaris from that market. More details will be given at the debut later tonight.

Felix Page