They did it. Toyota called our bluff. The marque built a Corolla with 300 horsepower, all-wheel drive, brakes that could stop an airliner and a seriously tweaked chassis.
It’s the kind of car you doubtlessly sketched in a middle school notebook when you should have been paying attention to a lecture on the Magna Carta but were letting your mind drift off to high-performance fantasies.
Of course, that dream car was based on the most pedestrian of econoboxes, juiced to the bursting point with dream specs. Two atmospheres of turbocharging? Check. Comically large flares over giant wheels and sticky tires? Checkaroonie. Six speeds and three pedals? That’s nine big checks, good buddy, and Toyota made it real now that you’re a creditworthy adult.
And yeah, you’ll need some good credit to bring home what turns out to be the impossibly hottest Corolla ever let loose on the streets. Nostalgia being a hell of a drug, Toyota wants a minimum of $35,000 and change for the most rudimentary version of the hottest Corolla, and the gnarliest model fetches over $45,000.
What’s the Big Deal?
Okay, let’s talk about this car that has us torn between excitement and jealous bitterness at the fact that we probably can’t have one because what limited stock is out there will be snapped up by folks with money to burn.
The Toyota GR Corolla hits the streets with 300 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque from a 1.6-liter three-cylinder ingesting up to 25.2 psi of boost. The only available transmission is a six-speed manual driving all four wheels through a variable torque-split, electronically controlled center differential.
Photography Credit: Donovan Dwyer
All three trim levels for 2024–Core, Premium and Circuit Edition–feature the same mechanical specs for driveline, suspension and brakes. The Core model is equipped standard with open front and rear diffs, but the Premium and Circuit Edition get Torsens in the front and rear pumpkins. The Core, however, can be upgraded with a Performance package that adds the Torsens to the base model as well.
Aside from that available upgrade, differences in the models are largely cosmetic and comfort-related. The Circuit Edition , the one that we tested, does get a carbon-fiber roof–although it doesn’t actually save any overall weight–and some hood vents, which are probably a nice touch for a car turbocharged to two atmospheres, but it is possible to build all the greatest performance bits into the most basic GR Corolla.
And that final word there is kind of the alpha and omega of the entire experience. The GR Corolla, after all, is a Corolla. Sure, the chassis spends a little more time on the assembly line–reportedly the GR model receives 349 additional spot welds and 9 more linear feet of structural adhesive to improve platform rigidity and durability–but the economy car DNA is never completely erased.
On the contrary, the budget roots of the GR Corolla feel almost embraced. Yes, the ergonomics are typical Toyota excellent, and the seats receive a serious upgrade from the base Corolla chairs, but the interior is still simpler and more Spartan than it is high-end.
Photography Credit: Chris Tropea
Certainly, market competitors like the Honda Civic Type R and particularly the Volkswagen Golf R offer a more upscale experience inside, but the GR Corolla’s interior finish and feel echo the most basic of Corollas more than even the Hyundai Elantra N hews to its most basic version.
Forget That, How’s It Drive?
Ultimately, the basic nature of most of the GR Corolla is almost a feature and not a bug. When you unleash it on track, the lack of luxury quickly takes a back seat to the immediacy of the performance.
Driving the GR hard feels like a throwback. It has more in common with a Mazdaspeed3 or even a Dodge Omni GLH than a modern, turbocharged hot hatch like a Civic R. There’s lag off boost but epic thrust once the pressure comes up. The ride is stiff, but the steering and feedback are direct and high-fidelity. And the brakes are grabby and immediate, feeling as track-ready as anything with an M badge on the trunk.
Handling is solid, but this is still a generally tall, front-heavy, front-wheel-drive car that happens to be equipped with all-wheel drive. That means understeer at the limit, but the AWD system does a good job at not completely overworking the front tires.
Photography Credit: Donovan Dwyer
Where the GR Corolla truly excels is in delivering 100% of its potential to the driver. We noticed this when we first drove the car at the press launch in 2022, and we were excited that the tendency held up once we finally got one to our test facility. The GR gives you an edgy, high-definition feel and feedback, but the handling is never nervous, and the entire spectrum of grip and balance seems intuitively accessible in every corner.
The 14.1-inch, four-piston front brakes, along with the 11.7-inch, two-piston rear brakes, have a major hand in that accessibility. They not only produce anchorlike deceleration, but they have great feel and great release, letting you control corner entry attitude with a huge deal of precision. In fact, it’s one of the most confidence-inspiring cars we’ve driven on corner entry, allowing you to charge corners aggressively and easily gather things up if you end up diving in with a bit too much enthusiasm.
There are cases where that old-school vibe rears its head, though. That three-cylinder engine may be great for weight savings–after all, it has a full 25% fewer pistons and rods than the other cars in its class–but it definitely makes its power through pressurization. If you don’t absolutely snap that 3-4 shift as quick as possible, for example, you’ll be met with some initially flat acceleration in fourth gear until the boost spools back up and things go back to normal.
What’s the Data Say?
Subjective impressions are one thing, but the VBox data fills in the gaps with facts. The story on the GR Corolla is that it absolutely slots neatly into the track performance neighborhood of its closest market competitors.
The GR Corolla’s best lap at the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park puts it in a solid second place among today’s hot hatch segment, although all of the competitors are basically within the margin of error for track and test conditions. The GR Corolla (1:21.57) is bracketed by the Hyundai Veloster N (1:21.49) and the FK8-chassis Honda Civic Type R (1:21.79), with the Volkswagen Golf R and Elantra N also in the mix in the mid-21s and 1:22.0 range.
A deeper dive into the data traces shows the GR Corolla using brakes and stability to outpace the Civic R–surprisingly, the FWD Civic pulls itself out of corners just as hard as the AWD Corolla in most cases. But the GR Corolla is unafraid to take later, more aggressive braking points, decelerate harder and still maintain a stable turn-in–unlike the Honda, which takes a little more delicacy to transition from brakes through turn-in to cornering.
Faced off against its AWD competitor, the Golf R, the GR Corolla is slightly behind on the clock due to a single main factor: power. The Golf R’s 20-plus-horsepower advantage and quick-shifting DSG transmission shows up on every acceleration curve. Even when the Corolla beats the Golf through a corner, which it does frequently, the Golf makes up the deficit nearly instantly on exit, and it just puts the GR farther behind with each shift.
Interestingly, the data does show the acceleration curves starting to merge around midway through fourth gear. The GR Corolla uses all 25.2 psi of boost to push that little three-banger into having longer legs than you might think based on specs alone.
Overall, the data trace of the GR Corolla looks like that of a pretty locked-down car. Speed variation through corners is minimal, and the general lack of anomalies matches up well with our seat-of-the-pants feel for how the GR Corolla made every bit of its potential accessible and manageable.
And if what we’re hearing from autocrossers and track enthusiasts who’ve purchased GR Corollas is true–that up to 3° of negative camber is easily attainable from the factory struts–then owners should be able to use those generous alignment allowances to mitigate some of the more front-heavy, tall car characteristics of the GR Coroll
What’s the Bottom Line?
Photography Credit: Donovan Dwyer
The GR Corolla is a ton and a half (almost exactly) of fun on track. But its overall appeal is as a throwback car. It’s not as sophisticated or slick as other cars in its class, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for in performance. Reviewers will deride it for this lack of sophistication as much as its fans will praise it for its, well, lack of sophistication.
It’s the automotive equivalent of a tube of cookie dough. Yes, it’s edible and delicious, but it’s also raw and unrefined and makes you look a little crazy when you squeeze it into your mouth. But some people are into that, and after lapping the GR Corolla, we can’t blame them one bit.
