With production of the Toyota GR Corolla starting at the manufacturer’s plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, we suspect it’ll only be a matter of time before the hot hatch officially goes on sale in the UK.
Toyota has yet to officially confirm anything, though, and if and when it does happen, we suspect getting an allocation may not be all that easy if the GR Yaris is anything to go by.
So what do you do if you’re absolutely desperate to get your hands on one today? Well, you could look at importing one yourself from Japan, although that may not be all that easy given the GR Corolla is only sold via a lottery system over there at the moment. Then there’s the fun and extra expense of having to get it through an IVA test to legally use it here.
Toyota GR Corolla, rear
Or, you could start bidding on this one for sale with Collecting Cars, which someone has gone through all the trouble of making it completely fine to use on our roads. Tempting, honestly.
Now, if you’d like a crash course on the Toyota GR Corolla, we can do that. It uses the same 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine as found in the GR Yaris here, but as it doesn’t have to conform to EU emissions standards, it’s unhinged to 300bhp rather than the 276bhp you’ll get from a UK-spec Yaris (and presumably, a version of the GR Corolla for us, too).
Toyota GR Corolla, interior
It also uses the GR-Four all-wheel drive system, complete with front and rear limited-slip differentials. This one has the six-speed manual gearbox, too. This particular 2024 car found its way into the UK in September, and in total, has covered 9818 miles across its time here and in Japan.
Some very, very minor mods have been made in the form of a Blitz strut brace and Tanabe cooling plate, both of which would be pretty easy to reverse if you wanted to go totally OEM.
Toyota GR Corolla, engine
Given it’s not all that often we’ve seen a Toyota GR Corolla come up for sale in the UK so far, it’s hard to pin an exact estimate on it. Bidding sits at £15,000 with a week to go at the time of writing, but we’d expect it to land at least north of £40,000 if the ‘Gen 2’ GR Yaris is anything to go by. Worth it, or worth waiting?
#Heres #Chance #Buy #Toyota #Corolla