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Thread: Toyota GR Corolla Circuit

  1. #1
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  2. #2
    Site Supporter Paul D's Avatar
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    That hot hatch is...hot.

  3. #3
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    Same 1.6L 3 cylinder in the GR Yaris is making over 500hp with turbo/fuel system upgrades on stock internals. The stock cylinder sleeves and rods/pistons are very beefy.

    Love the factory Torsen diffs front and rear, love the brake package, love the potential overall.

    I'm not in love with how these are going to be priced through the stratosphere by Toyota dealers to a point where even straight MSRP is basically a screaming deal. That kind of pricing problem can easily make these $10-15k more expensive than a comparably equipped WRX, and this isn't $10-15k better than a WRX.

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    It's great to see Toyota following through on their promise to bring a hot hatch to North America. As much as I wish they had brought the GR Yaris here, a little more size and power seem fitting for this market. I might have to find a way to take a Yaris for a drive next time I'm in Europe.

  5. #5
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Le Français View Post
    It's great to see Toyota following through on their promise to bring a hot hatch to North America. As much as I wish they had brought the GR Yaris here, a little more size and power seem fitting for this market. I might have to find a way to take a Yaris for a drive next time I'm in Europe.
    Shouldn't you be driving a modded Citroen when visiting the EU?

    Burn your Sebastian Loeb apparel while you're at it, Pétain.
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    Shouldn't you be driving a modded Citroen when visiting the EU?

    Burn your Sebastian Loeb apparel while you're at it, Pétain.
    Ha! My last two road trips there were in my grandfather’s Citroën, although more of a highway cruiser than anything sporty. To give you a sense of my irreverence, I’m planning to wear a Japanese watch to Switzerland.

  7. #7
    I spoke with my long time Toyota dealer today, and these cars may be harder to get than an Acro P2.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by JRB View Post
    Same 1.6L 3 cylinder in the GR Yaris is making over 500hp with turbo/fuel system upgrades on stock internals. The stock cylinder sleeves and rods/pistons are very beefy.

    Love the factory Torsen diffs front and rear, love the brake package, love the potential overall.

    I'm not in love with how these are going to be priced through the stratosphere by Toyota dealers to a point where even straight MSRP is basically a screaming deal. That kind of pricing problem can easily make these $10-15k more expensive than a comparably equipped WRX, and this isn't $10-15k better than a WRX.
    Yep. If I'm looking at $50k I'm looking at a used rear wheel drive or AWD like a CTS-V or similar. I want rumble, not fart cans for that kind of money.
    Last edited by Spartan1980; 04-06-2022 at 03:47 PM.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Spartan1980 View Post
    Yep. If I'm looking at $50k I'm looking at a used rear wheel drive or AWD like a CTS-V or similar. I want rumble, not fart cans for that kind of money.
    I am with you there 100% but there are millions of people who have never driven a good American V8. If they did, it was in a huge SUV so it didn't come off any different than a 6 or a turbo 6. 5-6 years ago I was working a corner at a BMW club autocross. The turbo 4s had just come out for the 3 series. Da-n they were awful. Fast enough sure, but it sounded like a 10 yr old civic that someone had added a turbo charger to. 10 min later one of the 3s or 5s that had a V8 ran, and I commented to another guy that there is how a good car sounds. From 2005 to 2019 I autocrossed a cobra replica w/ a 408 SBF. When the C8 Corvette came out w/ a dual clutch auto trans I mentioned that to my wife and said maybe it's time to buy a 2019 C7 Corvette w/ a 7 speed manual trans. I worked that into the conversation as often as I could. End of Nov2019 wife says how much is a Corvette and how much could you get for the cobra. I gave her the numbers and she said go find one. My mouth dropped open, and the day after Christmas we bought a used C7 w/ 4000 miles on it. I am a very lucky guy and I get a huge smile every time I fire up the Stingray.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by CraigS View Post
    I am with you there 100% but there are millions of people who have never driven a good American V8. If they did, it was in a huge SUV so it didn't come off any different than a 6 or a turbo 6. 5-6 years ago I was working a corner at a BMW club autocross. The turbo 4s had just come out for the 3 series. Da-n they were awful. Fast enough sure, but it sounded like a 10 yr old civic that someone had added a turbo charger to. 10 min later one of the 3s or 5s that had a V8 ran, and I commented to another guy that there is how a good car sounds. From 2005 to 2019 I autocrossed a cobra replica w/ a 408 SBF. When the C8 Corvette came out w/ a dual clutch auto trans I mentioned that to my wife and said maybe it's time to buy a 2019 C7 Corvette w/ a 7 speed manual trans. I worked that into the conversation as often as I could. End of Nov2019 wife says how much is a Corvette and how much could you get for the cobra. I gave her the numbers and she said go find one. My mouth dropped open, and the day after Christmas we bought a used C7 w/ 4000 miles on it. I am a very lucky guy and I get a huge smile every time I fire up the Stingray.
    In my previous life working at performance shops, something I heard early on in my career was 'Horsepower makes more noise, but more noise doesn't make more horsepower'.
    Most folks who are derisive of the 'fart can' 4 and 6 cyl cars have only really heard the $50 muffler shop hackjobs slapped onto otherwise stock economy cars, which tragically outnumber proper builds by orders of magnitude. There's no shortage of poorly modified V8 cars either, and every time I hear a 4.6L 3V Mustang GT that's straight piped after the stock cast exhaust manifolds, I cringe and shake my head just the same as when I hear a kazoo-muffler on a clapped out 2006 Civic.

    Turbocharged Honda B-series, H-series, and K-series engines will sound rather potent and substantially different than the high-pitched bleating lawnmower kazoos. Same goes as well for turbocharged 6 cylinders in good form, such as a Supra Turbo or a 3000GT VR-4.
    So while it may be surprising to some, there's a lot of bona-fide gearheads that simply prefer the sound of those turbo 4 cyl or 6 cyl engines. Me personally I just adore the sound of a Toyota 2JZ with a huge turbo on it, but that doesn't stop me from grinning ear to ear when I hear a C6 Z06 with Kook's longtubes. There's also those weirdos that prefer the sound of a Subaru flat 4 or a Mazda Rotary.

    There is, however, definitely a strange thing happening with a lot of late model engines where they just sound like absolute garbage no matter what you do. The BMW 4cyl you're referencing is one of them. Similarly, the Toyota GR/GT86 has always sounded terrible no matter what you do to it, and in my speed shop days we built a lot of those with various turbos and supercharger setups and a myriad of different headers and exhaust systems and there's just no way to make it sound good.

    The good news is I suspect this new GR Corolla 1.6L 3 cyl may start its own cult as well, because it does sounds good in its own way. In the modified GR Yaris videos I've seen it sounds like a Triumph Speed Triple with a turbo and bigger lungs, and the sound of higher revs is rewarding and joyous instead of strained or farty (IMHO, at least) so there's some appeal there. Add in this new GR Corolla's very kick-ass AWD system (Torsen LSD's in the front *and* the rear diff!) and the very clearly kick-ass brakes, this thing is going to be a road course and autocross monster that punches way above its weight class.
    It just remains to be seen if Toyota will make enough of them to prevent rape & pillage levels of 'market value adjustments', and whether or not Toyota was smart enough to leave the proverbial 'back door' cracked open in the ECU to support guys like me that want to re tune and tinker on these things.

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