Want a 2023 Toyota GR Corolla? Consider these hot hatches, too

Article content

So, you want Toyota’s new hot hatch, the 2023 GR Corolla

Well, welcome to the club. This looks to be yet another desirable Toyota in short supply. According to fellow Driving editor, Clayton Seams, there are currently no less than 2,500 applicants for the 10 “Morizo” — Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda’s pseudonym when he was secretly learning to race — version of the GR that are coming to Canada. And that’s for a Corolla that, I’ll remind you, costs $59,900. Yes, for a Corolla.

Article content

Thankfully, there will be entry-level GR-Corollas for we the masses. The Core model starts at a relatively reasonable $45,490 — 75 per cent of Canadian sales says Toyota — and a $53,990 Circuit model that I tested with a carbon fibre roof, vented hood and heated front seats.

Article content

What unites all GR Corollas is the same turbocharged 1,618-cc inline three-cylinder engine that powers the GR Yaris that Driving.ca had an exclusive test of last summer. In GR Corolla guise — turbo-boosted to an incredible 25.2 psi and blessed with bigger inlet valves — the G16E-GTS three makes 300 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. For those who follow such things, that means this GR makes 185 horsepower per litre and, if you don’t like thinking metric, about three horses per cubic inch of displacement.

Mated to the GR-Four all-wheel-drive system and a slick-shifting six-speed manual, the GR Corolla can accelerate to 100 kilometres an hour in an eye blink less than five seconds. Quite literally an eye blink: Toyota officially rates it at 4.99 seconds which speaks either to an exactitude seldom applied to acceleration times or a marketing team’s desire to put a “four” into its specification sheet no matter what followed the decimal point.

Article content

Article content

More important than the outright number, however, is how this power is produced. Being a three — rather than the more common four — cylinder, it sounds completely different. Some will say, it sounds ‘flatter’ than a V-Tec’d Honda Civic Type R. Others will find it makes similar noises to a big-inch V6. Both will be right. What I can assure you is that, whichever description you choose, it is no less enticing for it.

The inline three also makes power like a V6. Three bigger pistons would seem to get turbochargers spinning at lower rpms than four smaller ones, so there’s a lot of low-end grunt in the G16E-GTS, the GR getting a noticeable gain in acceleration (as well as a well-received reaction from the boost gauge as low as 2,000 rpm). Three hundred horsepower may not be the most in any division of sports car, but when it only has to motivate 1,475 kilograms (3,252 pounds) and is backed up by, as I said, lots of immediate grunt, it is more than just satisfying.

Article content

Besides the motor isn’t the GR’s best foot forward. That would be the GR-Four AWD system. Designed specifically for Rally racing — the Yaris version of the GR is literally the homologation special that lets Toyota race in WRC — it offers three different front-to-rear torque splits. The default setting is a safety-first 60:40 bias to the front. There’s also a drifting-oriented 30:70 option that sends the majority of those 273 torques to the rear. And finally, a strict 50:50 split that takes over when you push the Track setting. Unlike the GR Yaris — which I tested in Italy and has a heavier, more competition-oriented steering feel — I kept the Corolla in 60:40 mode. Cold weather, slipperier tires and crazy fast steering led me to seek an out clause and pushing the front tires before I slid the rears seemed like the right choice in early December.

Article content

That said, the GR-Corolla really does steer a treat. Suspension of the rally side of firm, a chassis stiff enough to get the most out of its Michelin Pilot Sports — 235/40ZR18s all around — and a directness of response to steering inputs that you only get when you really do mean for your car to get thrashed at a racetrack. This is a lively car with barely the slightest intent as a regular Corolla-like daily driver and while I can’t say for certain that it will out-track Honda’s latest Civic Type R because we haven’t tested the two of the then back-to-back at Ontario’s Calabogie Motorsports Park — an omission we plan to correct as soon as we can next year — I can say that it is more sporting than any recent Subaru WRX or Volkswagen GTi. The GR Corolla, no matter which version you buy, is that ultimate compromise; a thoroughly engaging ride with a soupcon of Corolla practicality and the promise of Toyota reliability. It doesn’t get much better than that, even if the price is initially a little shocking.

Article content

You still prefer the Honda

Well, the Civic Type R is all new for 2023, its 2.0L Turbo four boosted to 315 horses and 310 pound-feet of torque thanks to an increase to 25.2 psi, the same boost pressure as the GR. It’s hardly official, but Car and Driver says the ’23 Type R accelerates to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.9 seconds which would seem to indicate the it’ll take a smidge over five seconds to get to 100 klick an hour. I suspect the GR’s minute advantage is a result of the fact that it has two more tires to distribute all that torque since the Type R is lighter — albeit just 25 kilograms — as well as more powerful.

The same is true of any comparison of on the limit handling. Logic would dictate that the Corolla and its sophisticated GR-Four AWD system would be superior to Honda’s comparatively pedestrian front-wheel-drive layout. But the last generation Type R defied its FWD layout by outperforming all its AWD competitors at our last racetrack comparison. There’s no reason to believe that the new model will be any less capable. Indeed, I suspect that the difference between the two will be less about outright capability and more about comportment, the new Honda the same ruthless corner carver the Type R has always been while the GR — with its variable all-wheel-drive system — the more playful of the two. But, until we can get them on the racetrack together, we won’t know for sure.

Article content

You’ve always longed for a Subaru WRX

Subaru’s WRX has long been the go-to AWD hot-rod of this segment. And this latest version — all-new for 2022 — is the most stylish and practical all-round sports sedan wearing that badge in quite some time.

Unfortunately, it’s also one of the slowest, its 278 horsepower only good for a six-second sprint to 100 kilometres an hour. That’s also because, in its Sport + Eyesight guise, it also weighs in at a pretty hefty 1,601 kilograms. That’s a full 3,522 pounds. In fact, the Sport-Tech + Eyesight trim weighs an almost identical 1,621 kilograms as Toyota’s V6-powered Camry TRD. It’s also worth noting that we shouldn’t expect a higher performance version of this WRX since Subaru has said that there will be no new STI, at least one powered by an internal combustion engine.

Article content

In other words, this latest WRX is a more sensible and attractive version of the car that has long personified potent little rally cars. If practicality is what you’re looking for in a small performance sedan, by all means opt for the little Subie. But, if you’re after fun-to-drive I think you’re better off with the GR Corolla.

You really want a GR Toyota

Well, if the Gorolla isn’t your cup o’ tea, Toyota Canada will, of course, want you to consider either the GR86 or the high-end GR Supra. But the GR86 simply doesn’t have the moxie and the GR Supra only drives the rear wheels. Besides, the former is a Subaru and the latter is a BMW. Why not opt for a real-deal Toyota?

What would be so cool is if Toyota Canada brought the GR Yaris to our shores. 43 horsepower weaker but, at 1,280 kilograms, almost 200 kilos lighter, the littler and less powerful Yaris is just about as quick as the stouter Corolla. It’s blessed with the identical all-wheel-drive system, which, combined with the lighter weight, makes the Yaris even more playful than the GR’ed Corolla. In fact, the only thing more fun to drive than a GR Yaris is Ford’s much-missed Fiesta ST.

Article content

Nonetheless, Toyota Canada probably made the right choice of GRs to bring to Canada. We Canadian auto enthusiasts talk a great game about appreciating thoroughbred performance uber alles, but the fact remains that we like even our sports cars to have a modicum of comfort and practicality. And that the Corolla version of the GR does better than the Yaris which has no rear doors, no rear headroom and barely as much luggage capacity as a touring motorcycle. Nonetheless, the continental Yaris is the sportier of the two cars.

Of course, the ultimate GR would be the European Yaris supplemented by our Corolla’s motor. Even the Italians, it seems, can’t have everything.