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There have been rumors of a GR Corolla for nearly four years. But it is only now that Toyota will give the compact hatchback the Gazoo racing treatment. Oddly enough, the company has refrained from revealing the car’s identity, but the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teasers have suggested it’ll be related to the immensely popular Corolla.
Tonight’s “Toyota Performance Product Reveal”, where everyone hopes to see Japan answer to the Volkswagen GolfR, is tonight. The GR Corolla will feature all-wheel drive, much like the Wolfsburg hot hatch. The brand’s first AWD performance hatch will not be the GR Corolla, although the not-for America GR Yaris has been around a while.
The supermini might share its three-cylinder engine with its larger brother. The GR Corolla will inherit a turbocharged 1.6-liter gasoline engine from the GR Yaris. The Japanese version of the subcompact hatchback has 268 horsepower, while the European version only has 257 horsepower.
The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla will have the same power, if it isn’t stronger, because it’s a larger and heavier car. This is an educated guess. We expect a six-speed manual transmission to transmit all that power to both wheels, much like its brother. A GR Yaris is also currently working on an eight-speed automatic transmission. It’s not yet clear if it will be adopted by the GR Corolla.
The GR Yaris already has 266 pound-feet (356 Newton-meters) of torque on the Old Continent. The three-pot could be tweaked by Toyota engineers to produce a little more torque to match its extra weight. The JDM-spec GR Yaris has not only more horsepower than its Euro counterpart but also a little more torque at 273 lbft (370 Nm).
The GR Corolla joins an expanding range of sports cars that includes a GRMN Yaris. It is only a matter time before the hotter Supra arrives, and there are rumors that the BMW Z4 will get a manual gearbox.
Gazoo Racing’s crown jewel will be the 1000-horsepower GR Super Sport supercar, if it’s still being done.