This is the Corolla we’ve been missing.
Yes, Toyota has rightly earned a reputation for delivering high-quality, reliable vehicles built like tanks. If people asked me for recommendations for a solid compact car, I’d have no qualms about telling them to put the current Corolla, in either sedan or hatchback form, at or near the top of their shopping lists.
When driving enthusiasts think Corolla, however, their thoughts don’t turn to hybrids and automatic transmissions. The 1980s was the heyday of Corolla performance, with AE86 models with available high-revving twin-cam engines and slick-shifting five-speed manuals inspiring dreams of autocross glory.
Or, at least, that was then…
The company’s current chairman, Akio Toyoda, is cut from the same cloth as those AE86 lovers of yore and it shows. GR, short for Gazoo Racing, is his baby and its DNA is found in the GRSupra, GR86 and now, GR Corolla.
The GR Corolla is everything that AE86 was and more. It starts with a fire-breathing three-cylinder turbo mated to a six-speed manual (an automatic is now available, but why?) and all-wheel-drive powertrain.
It’s fast. It’s nimble. It sticks to the track like glue.
It’s also the most you’ll ever spend on a Corolla. Performance does have a price, however.
For the $49,725, including dealer fee, destination and delivery, the GR Corolla will cost you to start, you get 300 horses, a slick red colour scheme and the ability to adjust the torque split of the all-wheel-drive system to favour normal driving, track driving or rally racing. Torsen limited-slip differentials front and rear keep power planted to pavement even when one wheel has no traction.
It’s pure driving joy, and may be the easiest car to drive with a stick ever. Let off the clutch and the engine revs automatically to forestall stalling on start up. The car automatically rev matches on downshifts and the stick slides between gears like butter.
The three-cylinder turbo, a darling from the Euro-spec GR Yaris, spins up quickly and pulls hard. In most situations, you wouldn’t know it’s a three-banger but it does sound a bit harsh under hard acceleration. There’s only so much you can do to smooth out a three-cylinder.
My latest time driving the GR Corolla was in August during Toyota Canada’s 60th anniversary cross-country drive. My leg was between Cambridge, Ont., where Toyota’s first Canadian manufacturing plant began making Corollas in 1988.
I’ve also driven it on the track: Toyota launched the full GR lineup — GR Corolla, GR86, GR Supra — at Vancouver Island Motorsports Park near Duncan, B.C. It was brilliant on the track, but not so perfect as to completely remove the driver from the equation: you still needed to know what you’re doing. That you can get into trouble is part of the thrill of high-performance driving.
Here’s what I wrote from that trip:
The GR Corolla was, arguably, the darling of this adventure. With standard all-wheel drive, with three different torque-split ratios, its traction was unparalleled by either of the other two cars. It stuck to the track on exits like glue, with the ability to out-accelerate both the GR86 and the more powerful GR Supra, both of which demanded far more patience with the accelerator pedal lest too much power be applied while the wheel was still turned, thus inducing power-on oversteer.
Yet as superlative as the car is on the track, it remains a comfortable daily driver.
The design of the GR Corolla is based on the Corolla hatchback, but to push the wheels out a bit more, there are added fender flares. Inside, it’s very much Corolla, with the addition of the all-wheel drive control and a cool, customizable GR-specific instrument panel that shows G-forces, turbo boost and the ability to make the tach dominate, since racers will often drive by engine speed more than vehicle speed.
The closest competitor to the GR Corolla is the Honda Civic Type R, which tops the ’Rolla’s power with 315 horses, but is also 62 kilograms heavier, lacks all-wheel drive and is more expensive, starting at $54,750, including dealer fees, destination and delivery.
The Subaru WRX would also be worthy of consideration. It’s less expensive, heavier and with less power and torque than GR Corolla, but it also has all-wheel drive and is arguably a worthy compromise.
Still, if you want to tear up a Solo 2 autocross course with your daily driver, it’s going to be hard to beat the GR Corolla.
Kelly Taylor
Copy Editor, Autos Reporter
Kelly Taylor is a copy editor and award-winning automotive journalist, and he writes the Free Press‘s Business Weekly newsletter. Kelly got his start in journalism in 1988 at the Winnipeg Sun, straight out of the creative communications program at RRC Polytech (then Red River Community College). A detour to the Brandon Sun for eight months led to the Winnipeg Free Press in 1989. Read more about Kelly.
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