2023 Toyota GR Corolla Review // DRAG RACE + LAP TIMES

It's a big disappointment, I don't know how we are going to tell everyone that it wasn't that difficult, no, the ingredients were there. Four wheel drive, yes, so it could probably handle the snow. The

corolla

nameplate is correct. a manual yeah I'm being honest it doesn't really tell you much though no I bet the

corolla

is going to be cool oh yeah I'm excited about that yeah so you're looking at the throttle house I'm Thomas and I'm James and that's the gr corolla g r which stands for gazoo racing, which in this case turns a normal economy hatchback into a turbocharged rally-shaped hatchback derived from a corner-crushing rally, also one that costs 54,000 Canadian as a spec and this somehow isn't even the most expensive but the gr badge means that inside that swollen hood is the turbocharged three-cylinder engine of the gr yaris an engine that until now has been forbidden fruit for North Americans and in the corolla thanks At a triple exhaust and 25.2 psi of boost, it produces 300 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque.

This is the Circuit Edition, so you get even more standard items, such as the much-needed option of front and rear limited-slip differentials on any version, although the Corolla GR is manual-only. wheel drive

toyota

hot hatch rigid all signs point to greatness but to achieve greatness you must first defeat your enemies and there are quite a few of them, let's do this and if you are new to the accelerator house we do car

review

s, tests on track and quite a lot. There is a lot of hassle, so subscribe, ring the bell, okay, in many ways this is just a corolla, the ride is quite hard, it is not smooth, but it is not a decisive factor and, for the performance , it is a worthy compensation, but today I traveled here on the highway. and it's economical, it got 7.5 liters per hundred kilometers, that's 31 miles per gallon, the steering didn't move, it was easy to keep straight, the cabin noise wasn't loud, I was worried that would be a big problem, but conversations on the road at speed are easy, everything about this car is just if you want it to be safe, visibility is good, it's a

toyota

so you assume reliability and in fact the engine of this gi yaris It has been stress tested quite aggressively and has performed very well, the value is probably going to continue because there is so much hype around the car, it has lane centering assist and adaptive equipment which are very good, it has blind spot detection If you gave this to your grandma and she didn't go over 4000 rpm, other than the go and maybe the boomi exhaust only at traffic light speeds, she wouldn't know the difference, that's how normal the corolla gr can be, but it's a corolla gr and you've spent the money and this is the circuit pack so we want to know.

What happens when you take it to a track? Oh, it's good, yes, it's good on the street. This may be very tame, but you can feel the all-wheel drive system pulling out of corners on the street. You can have this in 60 40 60 mode. of the torque going to the front, but the corolla has a special transmission system, so if I turn it, it changes it to 70 of the torque going to the rear, it does that because when the differential rear is completely locked, it overtakes the rear wheels, that means they move faster than the front wheels, so in theory I can do this right, so there is a lot of grip here and a lot of understeer, no it doesn't, it doesn't want to oversteer , it's not an oversteer machine, plan b, I have a handbrake, I know what you're thinking, juvenile, there are no rally cars, so yeah, unfortunately, although it can send 70 to the rear, it seems the corolla doesn't It has enough torque to get everything.

The wheels spin especially on dry asphalt, let's be honest with ourselves, how many front-wheel drive hatchbacks can lose the rear on command? The answer is very few, welcome to a few. Well, it may not have the same type of all-wheel drive. The system that James has can only apply 50 of that torque to the rear wheels, but with some tricks on the rear differential, the new golf r can apply 100 of that torque to one of the rear wheels so you can kick the tail like that, yeah , and around. The track feels fast. I'm going to put it in Nurburgring mode, which doesn't want to kick the tail as much, but softens the suspension and is great for a slightly bumpy track like ours, meaning I should be able to catch it.

James and I'll overtake him, okay, I see how this is going to go, come to me, brother, okay, I'm going to change this to track mode so that it's 50 50 the optimal speed front and rear and it feels a better balance in track mode. I have more. front grip the steering is very good when I go off center I immediately know where my front wheels are the three cylinder has a great sound it growls and you can force it to make a turbo sound not unlike a maserati mc20 300 000 and that gr It's fast in the corners . It feels so balanced, although the front grip is incredible.

I feel like I can drive it like a rear wheel drive car. I think it has me on the streets, but it has very, very good cornering grip, maybe not. the bug level of the gi is 400 pounds in that car but it's firm and sturdy i have one more cylinder more power 315 horsepower 280 pound-feet of torque because this is the manual the shifter feels kind of cool it's similar to the gr86 but more The mechanics don't hang either, so I can accelerate the gears and the changes are short. The top of second gear feels like it's going about 100 kilometers per hour, a little less, so on the highway you can really enjoy this car and I know the gear on that golf r is longer this is a livelier vehicle funny the point is i might be having a hard time catching james currently in the corners on the straights i should be able to do this actually you know what's going to chase me come on do this properly what is it? thomas thomas thomas let's do it right, okay, I'll see you at the

race

track, let's have a

race

, okay, okay, this is a lighter weight, potentially a better all-wheel drive system, this is my dig race, this is my best opportunity also thomas is an idiot okay, it's not like he has to deal with carsten and his concentration leagues that's unfair that's unfair to bully the corolla gr they don't even make them anymore but I guess all is fair in love and racing resistance because we're all part of the 300+ horsepower club, so okay, this just got interesting, okay, so these are all manual cars with all-wheel drive and highly boosted engines.

I've seen Karsten throw that sti and he does it correctly. Do you know or speed up? Get a little boost and then release the clutch at high rpm. I'm going to do the same with this. James is going to do the same with that. This is very hard on the clutches and drive trains. Don't do this at home or do it at home your call, good shot, come on, oh that's close, oh the golf keeps going, oh the golfer is fast, I'm neck and neck with the sti, I just took the sdi , yeah, oh. That was a great race, oh my gosh that's fun, these cars are the same.

You're looking at the manual all-wheel drive turbocharged power of less than 50 great collections here and it's exciting what happened. Everything was great. Did he beat you? Not well? neck to neck within a tenth of a second of each other, if not less, and you won, although I took it well, I mean, overall, you lost, I just want to reiterate that, but the second one is pretty good, actually, this It is a winning corolla. is winning in America, it's cheaper, forget about Canada for a minute, it's cheaper than America doing it every day, this is a rocket off the line very fast, and I'm going to have to say this now because if I don't , all the golf bar owners in the universe, this comes with a dct or a dsg and if it had, if i had the dsg, i would have left them two other car lengths apart, even though these two are manual only, so we have to make it fair, carson did very good, i thought about the sti because even though it's an old car, it's an asian car, it's an aging car, it has more horsepower than the corolla gr, it's not what I said, but he's like 200 pounds heavier, so for that weight difference, I really didn't think he would overcome the weight difference and he did pretty well.

They are all very evenly matched, but this just did it. I was very impressed with everyone's pitches. Good job everyone. We all really got out of line. Man pulling clutches. at almost 6000 rpm it's a real thrill, I will say I feel really bad about dumb clutches and winning races and I've only done one of them okay let's do a rolling race yeah yeah okay the boost on this thing is crazy , the gauge cluster doesn't even care about anything below 4000 rpm in sport mode, why should it have 25.2 psi of boost? Come on, race, oh, I was more in the booth, come on, golf, golf is nervous, I think I took it.

I think I just have the top end of these guys okay that's the faster car yeah yeah yeah the sti and this one match up they just match up they just match up it seemed like it seems like we're more into momentum when we go there because he and I left together, yeah, and then you saw him and then I passed by you, yeah, just for the change, I guess I don't know, interesting, okay, okay, uh, lap

times

, this thing It's fast, mate, yes, this is the corolla gr. the corolla sti i have faith in the lap time let's see what happens well lap

times

now before we start just a quick note, we removed some of the cars from the rankings because we realized that the lap times from the first year we We tested here.

They were a little slow since no one had driven on the track in over six years. Well, the Golf R first, this is a surprisingly agile car with much better balance than the previous generation, per VW's recommendation. I'm running in Nurburgring mode, which keeps the suspension soft. which is perfect for dealing with the curbs and potholes here. I found the golf r to be a very communicative small car, the steering is excellent, the front end is strong and puts power down very well, however the stock tire really feels like it is the limiting factor on cornering speed , we will also say that the shifting was not perfect for this track and I kept pushing the limiter right out of the corners and the seats were not bolstered enough to lift your left foot to shift, but you are looking at the fastest lap on the r.

Well, in the gr. It was immediately apparent that this car was a little more glued to the asphalt in the corners. Overall grip levels felt higher and James was right. This is a fantastic little car to drive. The direction is excellent. The brakes are very strong and there is good feedback from all the controls, but unfortunately even in rear 70 mode you can't turn this car on the throttle and it understeers a little more in that mode because it feels like it's all wheel drive. The system tries to spin the rear wheels faster instead of inducing oversteer, it just forces the car forward into understeer, so in 50 50 mode, the front end actually grips better and you can turn the car in the curve in whichever direction you're looking at the fastest lap in this car. and honestly, after I finished doing the laps, I knew the times would be pretty tight.

Oh, we also had a new WRX there that day, so I set a lap time just as a benchmark for a cheaper manual turbocharged AWD. option okay oh I've set lap times yeah exhausting I've been sitting here looking at you yeah bouncing on the sidewalk taking a breath I missed the sti though no I did the sdi I actually did the sti um , I just thought that car had a, it's a car owner, so after a few kilometers it breaks, I just didn't feel it was fair, the timing didn't make much sense, okay, it wasn't representative, all the other timings had perfect sense depending on the car and conditions so i have three brand new cars yeah yeah you did the wrx even though i did the wrx yeah that's okay not great on the track that's not it One, it's not where it starts now I have everything I could have I guess.

I guess 118. is above 117.07, it's a good demonstration, actually not bad, not bad, I did one lap and then on the second lap I blew up the braking zone because the brakes were ready a lap later, these are all day on the brakes, yeah, I'm more curious about this, so I'm watching you from the side, yeah, you know, I mean, today we found out that this is pretty fast, it's a cool little hatch, don't you want oversteer, it's too hot, yes, no, no. Dude, it doesn't skid, which was a big bummer, this does big skids this first time, no matter what we did, other than obviously the handbrake, but you can make a front wheel drive car skid with a handbrake, He just didn't do it.

I don't know it wasn't that fun but it was good but neither is the wrx and this one is more fun than that and does all the sti rally stuff okay wait can't we? I can't know this doesn't work for rally stuff we can't know we're assuming you're acting like an idiot that's not itas the saying goes that's how it works well you're ready oh I don't know 21 first golf golf Well the golf did a fifteen point three one fifteen point three yeah, pretty good for a family hatch. I mean if you compare it with other times in qualifying, today it's colder, the track is a little wet, some geese did something. pooping on it, but it's still a good three seconds faster than the seven mark, yeah, that was a long time ago, a long time ago, yeah, but listen, I got everything I could out of this car and I think the tires probably They slowed him down a little.

A little bit now, what would you like to know? I told you I dried off because it's a mix of brake dust, goose poop, all good, are you ready? Yeah, so this was a 115.3, I guess 115 6. one fourteen point six six, good Lord, yeah. Wow, it was faster and I think that comes down to, like I said, the tires probably helped but just the overall cornering grip levels are bloody. Impressive, yeah it's great, it was great, it's a great little car and I discovered that the more the conditions on the track changed, the more the balance of the car changed, the tires are very sensitive and I noticed that on the gr86 I remember that too.

I was talking about the ps4 not being as consistent as the ps4, but this is the ps4, the ps4, that's what I mean, yeah, if you put the ps4 in this monster car, it would be a weapon, right? That's incredibly impressive, really if At the beginning of the day, the fact that it surpassed this, I would put money on this, okay, so look aside, let's forgive the dirt for a minute, it's a monstrous, bulbous, bulbous corolla, I have been in this every day, yes, no one notices. Okay, some guy stops and says what happened to that, because that's what Arnold Schwarzenegger of the twins did, yeah, he fell and got bruised, no, oh, it tastes like dirt to me, he's changing tires, um, I have gooseberry , the fender flares get me. the supra the supra slash fender flares sienna flares that are sienna that's true no they do things for me they do it I love the fender flares and I love the hood bulge I think it's cool with the air with the fence yeah these are the things from the circuit pack Okay, and then, you know, we have the roof, which is probably the coolest thing that you don't see unless you get really close, yeah, this is the fabric, no, the nonwoven, the nonwoven , forged carbon fiber. looks like a hurricane it's cool we have a baby spoiler but I think the production version of the circuit kit has a big fat spoiler that goes off oh interesting yeah we don't have it so okay take it off an extra tenth. second for downforce or add it oh I see what you would take away, yes the top speed would be lower I get it no I think it looks like the bee's knees I still love the golf look but I think this It's a very funny entry, eh, it's expensive, although in Canada it's more expensive, this is like 53 Canadian grand, a lot of money, uh, I mean, it makes sense, it's the price elasticity of demand for something or how we force the economists to fart um, there's nothing, I have no idea what. has done it, there's nothing that does what this does now, uh, practically no, this comes very, very close, but this is, you know, basically vibrational level transmission, yeah, the wrx, ​​we said that the wrx was in the class of one.

Yes, but this is the next level up, yes, and the wrx is very cheap, actually, very, you know, but if I'm going to make a final statement about these two in terms of looks, yes, the golf r has always been the one who sleeps, everyone loves it. It's the sleeper yeah aka boring I like that they took this car they took the normal corolla and they made it crazy there are vents there are flares there are wings I have some deep dish pizzas here I think that's how I should do it I've always thought that the golf r should be flashier so if its going to be a hot hatch do it do it do it do it now there is a gti of this there is no hot corolla no its true you know.

The civic also works with s-i type r, yes I think there is a market for a warm kit. I don't know if it would be all-wheel drive, yes, but maybe just a minor tune or I don't know what I want. However, what I can say is that we have won, North America has one and normally I can't say that because I usually wear a red coat, but this time I can celebrate it because a lot of people were upset that the yaris was strictly because you don't know Europe, Yes, but I have driven the iris. I have lived with the iris, yes, although it is not as closed, it is a little heavier, yes, it is much better, it is a better car, yes, adults can.

It fits in the back, yes I think it looks better, it's better for American roads. Should we check the inside so you can do it? Because I've never been on the air and you could tell me that even that's better, yeah, okay, there you go. I don't want to use this to poop in the yaris because the girls are great, but I'm just trying to make Americans feel better about the fact that this just realized something you said, that there is no warm corolla . there's the apex, no, no, well the apex doesn't get any more power, yeah, but it's got stuff in it, yeah, anyway, it's fair enough, so yeah, um, yeah, like I say, real adults can sit back here, yeah, unless you get the murizo. edition that is that special edition that has a wrist only there are like how many I think there are two hundred don't quote me but it comes with an alcater la meriza steering wheel oh it comes with a lot of things yes, it is its cup two and it is 100 pounds lighter, yes, that was because the damping calibration was too bad for our tracks, maybe this is still interesting, uh, but although we don't have the marisa edition, the circuit edition has the murizo shift knob, that confuses us.

It's missing an armrest, but that's only because it's a prototype, the production versions will have armrests, okay, but yeah, there's a corolla here and for 50,000 Canadian you could resist that if you don't like all-wheel drive. you know what you know what there's some seams this is soft that's seam that's soft it's not the top it's a top fit vibe for the corolla yes yes it is still but we have a digital dashboard it's nice it's nice it's very nice the shifter is so significant, you know this between this, the iris was cheap, the gr86, it doesn't have the weight.

I remember you saying you didn't like the mid-air shifter, so I can't imagine the linkage being much different between them, but that's cool to me, I like it better, yeah, there's some black piano here, which It's not the best, but you know, otherwise there's really not much to say here, it's still just a Corolla with heated seats, it did. steering wheel yes, no rear heating, no lace-up seats, the golf r has that, yes the golf wire is more luxurious and I would say the golf r looks better, however I think this is a more usable interior, it is as if we had a volume knob.

We have normal climate control, yes, but the infotainment has a volume knob. I'm going to say it out loud again because that's so atrocious, it's not great, it's horrible, it's not great, it's horrible, but this system is kind of slow. It could use some improvement, but I'm very happy to have a digital gauge cluster. Oh, I forgot to say that on the Golf R track I followed it because there are stupid haptic feedback buttons on the steering wheel. Yes, I kept pressing the r with my palm while spinning. and it kept taking me out of Nurburgring mode, so I had to sacrifice one of my laps.

I did an extra lap just to make up for it. It was stupid. I still got obviously a good turn in a big room, but yeah, come on. Just don't put them on the steering wheel, the haptic feedback has to go, that's right, it's really not right. I think this has been incredibly interesting. I was very excited about this car. The seats you are trying to sit on. The seats are good. you know what they didn't hold me back very well they didn't that the civic type r is going to win it has the seats down 100 the new talk about the usable interior that interior of the civic is very good yes, I think both These cars should be afraid of the Type R.

Oh, what a line to finish but I'm not going to end on it. Okay, no, I'm fine. We'll have to check out the new Type R when it arrives. Won't we do it until? So, the G Corolla is fine, it may not share its Gr siblings' affinity for oversteer and joy or even the Golf R's affinity for oversteer and joy, but the G Corolla offers its own distinctive flavor, it's buttoned up. and tough in a way the golf r is not. I congratulate both cars on the way they took everything we threw at them today without a problem and were driven hard and long, but the Corolla proved to be faster on the track and it's not for nothing that you can have a speck of dirt on your finger and even so.

Use all the controls so that, with its wide track and 300 horsepower, the Corolla GR is as fast as any other hot hatch in its price range. The track edition we drove is nice, but a base spec with LSD and better brakes is probably all anyone will want. We need, as James said, it doesn't match the sheer fun of rear-wheel drive, but the fact that it can tackle all weathers, fit full-sized adults in the back and create this sound when hitting the rev limiter makes it turns into a wild off-roader we can welcome to the hot hatch club with open arms the question is which one do you really buy what would you do james ah damn I was hoping to escape without answering that uh they're so close but I'm getting old and the roads in Toronto are getting worse So for comfort, practicality and ease I would probably choose the Golf R with the DSG.

Still brilliant at other things, what about you? Hmm, since the golf r can drift, I'm pretty sure the Bible says that you should always choose oversteer and it's probably the best option for everyday use, but if you were planning to participate in some competition like autocross, rallycross or time attack , I think I would choose the gr, but I don't think either is the wrong choice. Interesting, thanks for looking.