When the new Toyota Corolla hatchback launched in 2018, it sent a shockwave through the car industry. Here was proof that company president Akio Toyoda was serious about his vow of “no more boring cars” — the most-humdrum of compacts had been transformed into a dynamic, fun-to-drive, cool-looking two-box.
It seems like that peppy hatchback may be about to get an even livelier sibling, though. According to AutoExpress, Toyota is planning on having its high-performance division whip up a Corolla hot hatch packing roughly 250 horsepower.
The Toyota GR Corolla, as AE says it’ll be called, would reportedly lose a cylinder compared with the regular version, but an added turbocharger (among other changes) would more than make up for that. AE says it would use the same turbo inline-three found in the sadly-not-bound-for-America Toyota GR Yaris, connected to the front wheels through a six-speed manual.
The GR Corolla, in effect, would be a rival to the Honda Civic Si and VW GTI rather than a super-sharp foe of the Hyundai Veloster N, Honda Civic Type R and VW Golf R.
Those letters “GR,” in case you’ve forgotten, stands for “Gazoo Racing” — the company’s in-house group dedicated to making sporty cars, much as M does in BMW and AMG at Mercedes-Benz. They’re also found in the formal name of the new Toyota Supra, which was masterminded by the division. So it’s safe to say this sporty Corolla would be able to draw a decent connection to the spicy sports car.
Being a British publication, AutoExpress doesn’t mention whether this souped-up Corolla would come to the United States. But given that, unlike the Yaris hatchback, the Corolla is already sold here, the odds seem fairly good that Americans could expect to snap up a GR Corolla when it goes on sale in 2023, if AE‘s info is correct.
AutoExpress also mentioned that Toyota is working on a GR version of the C-HR — the bizarre-looking compact crossover that only comes in front-wheel-drive with a CVT here in the United States. Should you be more interested in that car than the GR Corolla, well, we don’t know what to say to you.
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