Toyota will reveal the GR Corolla this Thursday, March 31, at 9:30 p.m. EST, the automaker announced in a press release Monday morning. At long last, we'll be getting an all-wheel-drive Toyota hot hatch in America.
While Toyota hasn't officially yet confirmed it's the GR Corolla, in its press release, the automaker said it's debuting "Its newest GR sports car," alongside two teaser images. Those pics show a wide front fender with vent and "GR-Four" branding on a rocket panel. With Toyota posting a massive teaser for the new hot hatch just last week, we're pretty sure we know what's coming.
The GR Corolla will be a serious consolation prize for Americans who have been begging Toyota to bring the fantastic GR Yaris to the U.S. While that appears to be off the table, we expect the GR Corolla to have mostly the same powertrain as the overseas Yaris. That means an excellent, homologation-special three-cylinder engine, a trick all-wheel-drive system, and a manual transmission.
The package will likely be heavier than the carbon-intensive, smaller Yaris, but if the Corolla is even 80 percent as good as the GR Yaris I drove last year, hot hatch fans will be happy. The boosty, characterful engine and true all-wheel-drive system made that car feel more special than any of the hot hatches I've driven in the U.S..
Still, we'll have to see whether the Corolla is a good enough platform for this serious hardware. We should learn more during the live-streamed reveal, which you can watch here.
