The since all-new 12th-generation Corolla made its appearance, sporting a sportier shape and much improved dynamics, there was always going to rampant speculation about the company finally unleashing a true competitor to the other hot hatches that have blossomed in Toyota’s absence, particularly since the company was concurrently investing more into their motorsport and new GRMN division.
In the interim, Toyota have given us a hot but limited run Yaris and a brand new Supra, albeit one co-developed with BMW and their own Z4 roadster. Still, the prospect of a fast Corolla loomed large, one that could take would-be rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Focus ST, Hyundai i30 N, and maybe even the Honda Civic Type R to task, Japanese style. So far, though, the automaker has been pretty quiet about it all.
That is until Toshio Kanei, the deputy chief designer to the Toyota Motor Corporation, spoke to dutch website AutoRAI, where he more or less confirmed that a GRMN tuned Corolla is indeed already in development, mostly spurred on by the prospect of strong sales in Europe.
Kanei-san went further when pressed about what might lie in the car’s bonnet, to which he denied it would be receiving a hybrid powertrain as often rumoured. Rather, a small displacement turbocharged petrol engine is under consideration, similar to Peugeot and Renault and their 308 GTi and Megane RS respectively. Specifically, a 1.6-litre unit with power hovering somewhere above 180kW. This is curious, given the smaller Yaris GRMN houses a supercharged 1.8-litre motor with 153kW.
Theoretically, with this gutsy a petrol engine as a base, they could pile on even more performance should they decide to shove in a hybrid assist drive system in the future. The idea that Toyota can stand to not cast their electrification tech at a wider portion of their portfolio is a stretch too far, at least not for long.
The automaker is planning a more concerted assault spearheaded by their GRMN performance division, and in the coming years we should see the catalogue of tuned or otherwise faster variants of standard Toyotas swell, beginning of course with the upcoming Supra and the next-generation 86 coupe; the Corolla GRMN and a Raptor-rivalling HiLux GRMN will add to it further, and perhaps a hot Camry to pick up where the Ford Mondeo ST220 left off all those years ago.
For more on Toyota cars, check out our Showroom.
