What's with the past tense? Has Toyota killed the GR4?

Just coming to terms that it will not come to the States lol

If they stick the 257hp AWD in the Corolla it would be as heavy as a new WRX with less horsepower and more expensive. FWD is the only way to keep the Corolla GR from being an uncompetitive pig imho and should line up nicely with the Veloster N underneath the Civic Type R, Golf R and STI while being just a touch 'more' than the WRX by virtue of being >100# lighter with a hatchback.

As long as they stick a real LSD in it I'd love to slide one around some day. And I bet that 3-pot sounds neat.

What made the Yaris interesting was the weight, 257hp @ 2800 lbs with AWD. There hasn't been a fun AWD car that light in 20 years since the first gen WRX.

That is exactly why the Yaris GR appealed to me soooooo much.

Yup, and throwing 400# onto the equation with a standard chassis Corolla vs the Yaris makes me say "the only thing this has over a WRX is a hatchback"

FWD can be fun as hell when it's set up right, AWD can be a pushy mess when it's wrong. The FRZ and Zupra are ok, but I'm not positive Toyota will nail the dynamics for the enthusiast who takes this thing out to beat on at 10/10ths

Edit: Watching some youtube videos, should be at least as good as the other two, doesn't look like the pro driver in the vid I'm watching is faking the smile hustling it and chucking it into corners with the handbrake.

I'm mostly anti-fwd. I had a Yaris and that was fun, I had a Saab Viggen and that was amazing, but for me to want another front wheel drive car it needs to be Fiesta ST good. My next car will most likely be some sort of full time all wheel drive, because that's the only thing I really have not owned yet.



If they screw the Corolla that bad by just adding the engine on a normal version it will be a useless piece of garbage no one will want. If they make it there better be work on it to make it just as good as the Yaris, or what's the point?


2800 pounds is a fat pig for a Yaris, I wonder what they did to make it that heavy. Early Yaris weighed closer to 2200 or so pounds, and all wheel drive did not add 600 pounds to that.

I can understand why you are "anti-fwd". Yaris and Saab would not be on my list of good FWD examples ..

@why? Yaris never had to deal with more than 150hp before this, you can make a car real light when it's powered by a sewing machine. Toss real power into it and you have to add weight to make sure it doesn't fall to pieces. The engine is bigger and heavier, the cooling system is bigger and heavier, the trans is heavier, the flywheel/clutch gets bigger for the torque, the driveshafts gets bigger, the hubs get bigger, the brakes get bigger, the bushings have to cope with higher forces, the suspension has to cope with the weight and so does all the sheet metal in the chassis to prevent the whole thing falling to pieces. Take the Miata for example, Mazda went to four lug wheels and engineered every ounce out of it, they went too far and they're still dealing with transmissions failing on stock power. I'm not sure but this might be the first five lug Yaris or at least I'd put money on the 2200# car being a four lug.

That's why anyone who knows anything knows that toyobaru will never cram that 250+hp engine into the 86, it'll pick up well over a hundred pounds and $5k+ in cost. The car is already cooling constrained and requires more frequent wheel bearing replacement than the average person would like, pretty much the only part of the car that's ready for more power is the LSD.
@JD001 You clearly haven't had the chance to pedal dance and flog a Yaris yet.

That's what I'm worried about.

- Andrew

These two posts make me wonder if either of you have driven the Corolla on the TNGA platform. It is an absolutely fantastic package, making for a wonderful handling car. When my FRS was getting repaired after being rear ended, I had a rental Corolla SE hatch and it was extremely good at going quickly around corners.

Good to know. I just want it to have some character.

- Andrew

+1 it's very good at 7/10ths on factory all seasons, stock dampers are a bit wallowy but that's how you get a comfy ride at a $20k price point, 8/10ths and I started to get a bit nervous. I'd love to toss some Koni yellows on it, play with the alignment (very similar looking front strut to an 86 up front, should be able to get some camber), and with some summer tires it should be pretty damn capable, engine is just a touch of a let down for the weight but revs about 2.5k higher than you think it should which feels silly in a good way wringing it out. It might fall apart on stock springs and 200tw though. idk if it has 'character' it feels about as unique as an FRS does imho fwiw. Oh and apparently it fits 9.5" wide wheels without much modification.

I could see a case for an Si competitor (especially since the Si isn't a hatch) with that 3 banger, an LSD, and a firmer suspension package. But you can already option it up to $26k so I don't think they can make the price point to actually compete with the Si. They'll have to make it great at that $30k Veloster N benchmark, it's certainly possible but it will take work.

Plenty of good reviews on the chassis already.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8zhyMMA...d=6t4tp3x8b4vt

https://youtu.be/m0aVAE_LJaU

I have not seen one review of this car on this side of the pond.. not that I've been looking out for them.. However, I do religiously read Car and Evo.. and it hasn't appeared in either mag.

Cars that do get good write-ups are: Ford Focus, Fiesta, vW Golf, Hyundai i30, Ceed, Honda Civic Type R, Renault Mégane and Seat Leon Cupra.. Toyota never featured highly even in the days of the Corolla GTi.. The new Corolla may be hitting a 'sweet spot' with the American tastes..

Canadian review: https://doubleclutch.ca/2020-toyota-corolla-xse/

This guy is a quite competent HPDE driver, so what he says carries some weight with me.