Toyota GR Corolla Set to Debut Thursday, March 31

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Mark your calendars for three days from now, folks.

Not only is it payday for a lot of us working schlubs, but Carscoops reports it’s also the day we’ll see the Toyota GR Corolla — and that the car is slated for our shores.

Apparently, Toyota hasn’t even confirmed this officially, but like with a magic 8-ball (or David Puddy, for you Seinfeld geeks), all signs point to yes.

The car’s makeover will include different front fenders, GR badging, gloss-black fender vents, lighter wheels, performance brakes with red calipers, and a side skirt.

Mechanicals are unclear, but the GR Yaris has all-wheel drive with three different drive modes that change the split of how power is sent to the wheels. In Normal, the split is 60/40, in Sport it’s 70/30 rearward bias, and in Track it’s 50/50.

The GR Yaris’ 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder — 257 horsepower and 265 lb-ft of torque — is also expected to be underhood in the GR Corolla. It’s possible Toyota could dial-up more power for the Corolla.

That’s about all we can say for now, because it’s about all we know for now. Toyota did put out a teaser video, which is below.

Check back Thursday for more.

[Image: Toyota via YouTube screenshot]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Tassos If Tim had enough imagination to see HIMSELF get such a warning, and PAY ATTENTION and ACT on it, and save $200s in tickets, he would have the exact opposite opinion.
  • Tassos As long as they are respectful and not annoying, and do NOT add an arm and a leg to the cost of the damned car.
  • Bill I bought a 2013 base mini convert manual with less than 30,000 miles last year. While I don't have the beautiful aural sensations of the inline 6, I have been having great fun on the rural roads of western Massachusetts. Kind of a modern version of an old English sports car. I ditched the run flats immediately, went to Conti extremecontact dws 06+. I like them so much I put them on my wife's Audi TT. The shocks I have been eyeing but don't really need yet are Koni special active with FSD technology. Supposed to suppress the sharp nasty bumps but remain firmly sporty otherwise. I had also been looking at the Z4's but couldn't pass on the super low mileage of the mini.
  • Paul Another beemer boy, immune to the laws of man and physics, driving his M3 through a school zone at 45 since Waze said it would cut 15 seconds off his commute.I bow before your righteous anger.
  • Paul Oh, the irony. 10 years ago they had solid entries in all these categories - C-Max hybrid and PHEV, Fusion Hybrid and PHEV, Focus Electric. 20 years ago you could get an Escape Hybrid.Ford and their dealers tossed these over the wall and walked away from them, never doing anything to promote or improve them over their life cycle. They still have a newer version of the Escape PHEV, which isn't a bad vehicle but I doubt if the buying public knows they exist & I rarely see one on the road.The Maverick hybrid is a nice idea and they could sell more if they would build more but again, I rarely see one in the wild.Feckless and clueless management and board - they richly deserve their coming bankruptcy.
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