It's something that has been talked about ever since Toyota revealed the GR Yaris, and told America that they weren't allowed to have one.
We can finally announce that the GR Corolla is a real thing, and even better, Toyota New Zealand has confirmed that it will land on our shores before the end of the year.
Click here to view all Toyota listings on DRIVEN
According to the official release, the motorsport experts over at Gazoo Racing have managed to build this Corolla into something "with extraordinary performance to match the world-beating and award-winning GR Yaris."
Given that the GR Yaris took out the main award in the 2022 AA DRIVEN Car of the Year, it's fair to say that we're quite excited for a more practical version of this hot hatch.
Starting on the outside, it's fair to say that the Corolla is a more aggressive-looking car from the outset. Toyota built upon this in the GR by adding even more rally-inspired kit.
READ MORE
This includes the larger front and rear bumpers, the widened wheel arches, vented front guards, a vented bonnet larger side skirts, a triple-exit exhaust within the rear diffuser, and a large wing on top of the hatch.
Underneath this aggressive aesthetic, you should be pleased to hear that it shares a whole heap of performance parts with its smaller GR sibling.
This includes the 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine that pumps out 224kW and 370Nm. The same six-speed manual transmission sends this to all four wheels via the GR-Four all-wheel drive system.
As expected, this power figure is up on that of the GR Yaris, which has just 200kW. We can imagine this extra power helps to cancel out the extra weight of the bigger Corolla.
In terms of performance, the GR Corolla will get the same drive modes as the GR Yaris, meaning up to 70 per cent of the torque will be able to be sent to the rear wheels in 'Sport' mode.
On top of this, it also gets a Torsen limited-slip differential at both axles.
In terms of local availability, Toyota New Zealand has stated that it is expecting to get GR Corolla stock before the end of 2022, but more information will be given closer to the local launch.