Toyota's GR Corolla is absolutely brilliant… if you can get one

Saturday, 13 May 2023

The all-wheel drive Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch, a limited edition performance hatch and Toyota's first 'hot' Corolla in two decades.

Toyota’s GR team is on an absolute tear at the moment. It started a few years ago with the reborn Supra before expanding into the ridiculously cool GR Yaris in 2021 and then the second generation 86 sports car last year. For 2023 the range is growing again in the form of the GR Corolla, a proper go at a hot hatchback from Toyota. Because, uh, the GR Yaris wasn’t enough apparently.

But is it a hot hatchback? I would say a ‘hot hatchback’, at its base, is a front-wheel drive performance variant of an economy-focused city car. The obvious marker here is the Golf, which essentially invented the category back in the 1980s with the GTI.

The Toyota GR Yaris is the 2021 Stuff Top Car for fun.

The Golf GTI was warmed enough to dust the regular Golf but it still used the same powertrain formula of a four-cylinder engine powering the front wheels. And, because of that, that first GTI was chuckable and playful, a formula many other brands have followed since.

But the GR Corolla isn’t front-wheel drive. It’s four-wheel drive, using the same GR-Four system as the GR Yaris, which means it has rally roots. That also means it grips, and doesn’t ever really stop.

**READ MORE:

Massive fender flares and a trio of exhaust outlets signify that this isn’t your regular Corolla.

* First drive: Toyota GR Corolla

* Tiny Toyota Yaris sells for more than $200,000

Three cylinders of fury... and a healthy amount of turbocharging.

* The GR Corolla has been revealed in full - and it's coming here

* Top Car for fun: Toyota GR Yaris

Compared with the GR Yaris, this interior is a massive upgrade.

You can send it into corners faster than you probably should and the wheels just dig in, mechanical and electronic wizardry keeping everything in check. There’s a dial that lets you switch the differential torque split between 60:40, 30:70 and 50:50, or Track. If you really push it in the rear-biased mode, the rear can wiggle a bit but you’ve got to really see-saw at the wheel to instigate any form of slide.

The best hot-hatch on the market? If you allow four-wheel drive into the equation, I’d say so.

That means it’s not really chuckable, not like the GTI anyway. But it’s so much faster because of it.

Like the four-wheel drive system, the GR Corolla shares its engine with the GR Yaris as well. That means it has a 1.6-cylinder turbocharged triple making a healthy 221kW/370Nm, which is improved on the smaller hatch by 21kW. Torque is identical.

This engine makes up for any perceived shortcomings in the 4WD system. It’s probably the most characterful of any car on the market today – not just hot hatches either – with an awesome three-cylinder rumble at idle that rises into a bellow at speed. I would say it’s louder than the Yaris too, which is always appreciated. There’s a fantastic blowoff valve that psshh's at every opportunity too, which is something the Supra really needs.

It has a fantastic mid-range, and you’ll find something to be gained by pushing it higher too, although being a turbo engine there isn’t a huge amount beyond about 6500rpm.

Paired with this peach of an engine is a brilliant six-speed manual. Honda’s manual is still a tiny bit better but that’s probably to be expected since Honda has been building manual Civic Type Rs for about four decades.

This one is gorgeous to use, easier than the Supras, with a beautifully light clutch action. Each gear shift feels slick with just the right amount of notchiness, and the rev-matching feature means every downshift is perfect. You can turn it off too, if you’d prefer to heel-and-toe.

Steering is brilliant, light but responsive with plenty of feeling through the tiller. It’s adjustable through the various ride modes. The ride isn’t adjustable but is surprisingly compliant over our roads. Road noise, however… Those low-profile tyres sure make themselves heard at speed.

Compared to the GR Yaris the cabin is much nicer. There’s wireless phone charging and infotainment system is the same as what debuted in the Lexus RX, powering a 12.3-inch display. It works nicely, boasting wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto. An eight-speaker JBL audio system is included as standard too. Plus, there are rear doors for rear seats which rear occupants can actually use.

So it’s a good car. Great, in fact. I might even go so far as to put it at the top of the current performance car pile. The $75k asking price is a bit thorny but the engine simply not being a 2.0-litre four-cylinder warrants a big consideration. And it’s such a good engine as well, making great power with the best sound this side of a six-cylinder.

As for that hot hatch thing, I’d say that while the four-wheel drive system removes some of the fun usually associated with fast econo-boxes, the GR Corolla still counts. It’s not as ridiculously powerful as the superhatches, like the Audi RS 3 and Mercedes-AMG A 45 S but is still quick, it maintains the manual transmission, and its compact dimensions are much more hatch-like than the rather large Civic Type R.

The Civic Type R is cheaper, has better practicality, and almost certainly faster around a track, but doesn’t quite have the soul of the GR Corolla. Of course, it pays to remember both cars are currently being sold via ballots, with the third and final ballot for the Corolla opening in late 2023, which means actually getting one might be a little tricky.