In recent years, Toyota has successively brought us high-performance versions of the GR series models, including the GR Corolla, GR YARiS, GR 86 and other models. It can be said that in the global market, the GR series body is also loved by many Toyota fans. Recently, Toyota has brought the new GR Corolla, in addition to the exterior and interior optimization in details, but also the engine parameters, hardware and cooling system optimization, more importantly, it also provides manual and automatic transmissions.
In terms of appearance, the overall shape of the new Toyota GR Corolla has a strong sense of visual impact, the redesigned front bumper, the size of the black grille is very large, the front of the car is very exaggerated, and there are air intakes on both sides, and the LED headlight groups on both sides are very sharp, and the LED daytime running lights will be very recognizable after they are lit.
From the side, the whole vehicle looks very compact and full of steel cannon feeling. The body lines are sleek, with black trim trim on the side fenders and GR badges hanging next to them. As for the rear, the hatchback design, coupled with the spoiler above the rear and the three sports exhaust pipes arranged in the rear bumper, can be described as full of combat. In addition, the taillights on both sides have a C-shaped design, supplemented by LED light sources inside.
In terms of interior, the overall design of the new car is more homely, and it is not as sporty as the exterior design. The interior is dominated by black with red stitching, and the multi-function three-spoke steering wheel has a GR logo to highlight its sporty identity, while it can also be seen that the new car is equipped with a full LCD instrument cluster and a central touchscreen, which retains some traditional physical buttons under the central display.
In terms of power, the new car is powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine with a maximum power of 304 hp and a peak torque increase of 370 Nm to 400 Nm compared to the previous model. In terms of drivetrain, the new car will be offered with a six-speed manual transmission and an eight-speed automatic transmission, with the eight-speed automatic transmission being called the Gazoo Racing Direct Automatic Transmission (DAT), which is the same transmission as the one on the GR YARiS series.
The main difference between this transmission and the gearbox on the GR Supra and GR 86 is that instead of shifting gears based on deceleration force and vehicle speed, DAT uses sensing braking and throttle input to achieve perfect shifting. Interestingly, the transmission has a very similar ratio to a standard six-speed manual transmission, with its own dedicated cooler. Toyota will also offer a sub-radiator for additional cooling as an option for the higher-spec models, which is standard on the top-of-the-line variant.
In addition, the new car has been optimized for handling, with new rebound springs added to the front and rear suspension systems to improve roll resistance, and the towing arm mounting points have been moved to reduce heaving during acceleration. It is worth mentioning that Toyota's new GR Corolla is equipped with front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials (LSD) as standard.
In general, Toyota GR Corolla is a small steel cannon with strong sports attributes, and it is really rare to be able to launch such a mechanical and controllable model in the environment of vigorously developing new energy vehicles. Unfortunately, there are no plans to introduce this model to the domestic market for the time being, but it may be seen in Hong Kong, Macao and parallel import markets.
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