2019 was a big year for Toyota's Gazoo Racing performance division, the highly-anticipated GR Supra was released, and the rally-spec, all-wheel drive GR Yaris was announced to the world.
While it hasn't been confirmed by Toyota, a recent report out of the UK revealed that a GR Corolla is in the works, and will be set to go up against the VW Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST in the hot hatch segment.
Back in 2019, Toshio Kanei, Deputy Chief Designer at Toyota mentioned that the hot hatch was in a development stage, and wasn't going to use a hybrid powertrain. This sent the rumour mill into overdrive, trying to work out what type of engine it would come with.
That question was answered in the same report, and was revealed to be the Yaris's 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine. This power plant is capable of 190kW in Europe, and 200kW in Japan.
Just like the Yaris, this GR Corolla would make use of the 'GR-Four' all-wheel drive power train, and likely come with a six-speed manual transmission. The main difference being that the Corolla will ride on the bigger TGNA platform.
An impressive 0-100km/h time of 5.5 seconds is achievable from this power train in the GR Yaris, so we can't imagine that the added weight in the Corolla would push it over six seconds.
Unfortunately, it looks like this GR Corolla is still a few years off, as a debut date during 2023 was also included in the report. If you simply can't wait that long, the GR Yaris will go on sale near the end of this year, and looks to be a better performing package.
Toyota mentioned that all models would eventually receive the GR treatment, and look to be well on the way to fulfilling this promise. It's rumoured that a GR CH-R is on the way next, not that anyone asked for it...