Toyota GR Corolla

On the inside, the Toyota GR Corolla retains the dashboard layout and many of its features from the regular version of the Corolla hatchback. However, to make it feel different and richer in overall feel, the cabin is wrapped in suede black leather upholstery, well contrasted by red highlights and stitching all around and aluminium pedals.

While the three-spoke multi-functional steering wheel of the GR Corolla looks quite simple, the 12.3-inch full-TFT instrument console behind it looks attractive with vibrant graphics and display modes. The centre console also looks slightly plain for a hot hatch, but has a touch of modernity to it, thanks to the large, floating 9-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The trapezoidal housing with a gloss black finish for the middle centre console has air vents and buttons for the dual-zone automatic climate control. The middle layer of the dashboard has a soft touch leather finish to it.

The spacious and comfortable cabin of the GR Corolla is equipped with additional features like power-adjustable front seats, a head-up display, a push start-stop button, a wireless charger, and a digital video recorder.

Based on the regular iteration of the Corolla hatchback sold overseas, the Toyota GR Corolla gets a host of visual tweaks, which have made this four-door hatchback sportier and much more aggressive. The GR Corolla has got the stance and appearance of a proper hot hatch, which makes it one of the most desirable hatchbacks in the world right now.

The sleek front fascia of the Toyota GR Corolla consists of a sleek-looking front grille, which has long, wedge-shaped curved headlamp housings attached to its side edges. With all-LED illumination, these headlamps make the front profile of the GR Corolla look wide.

The front grille of the hatchback is placed a bit lower below the front grille, which has a matrix design with a gloss black finish and also houses tiny rounded fog lamps on its lower corners. The front bumper also has sleek and vertically-placed air ducts on its corners, while the hood here gets functional air vents in the middle.

The GR Corolla looks quite long when viewed from the side, with its four-door design complemented by sharply-contoured front and rear fenders. The sportiness of the side profile is taken care of by air ducts placed behind the front wheel arch, door-mounted rear view mirrors and a carbon fibre roof. The multi-spoke 18-inch alloy wheels look perfect and in sync with the overall design.

At the back, the GR Corolla looks wide and muscular, thanks to the beefy-looking rear bumper with wide haunches. The rear windscreen has a rounded design, while the boot lid looks compact, and is flanked with C-shaped LED combination tail lamps. The massive-looking rear bumper also houses a large gloss black diffuser, along with a unique arrangement for triple exhaust ports on their lower part.

With a full-time sports AWD system on offer as standard, the GR Corolla feels grippy and stable on all kinds of stretches and corners. Adding more essence to its sharp driving mannerisms is the stiff setup for the suspension combination of Macpherson struts at the front and double wishbone at the rear, both of which get stabilizers.

The real differentiator between the GR Corolla and the regular version of the Corolla hatchback lies under their hoods, with the former getting a much more powerful heart powering its all four wheels. The engine on duty in the GR Corolla is a 1.6-litre, inline-three, turbocharged petrol engine, which produces 300 PS of maximum power and 370 Nm of maximum torque.

Paired with a 6-speed manual transmission, the engine channels the power produced to all four wheels via a full-time sports AWD system and is equipped with three drive modes – Normal, Eco and Sport. While the top speed is rated at 230 kmph, the GR Corolla can do 0-100 kmph in just 5.3 seconds.

The long and comprehensive suite of safety features offered in GR Corolla as standard includes the Toyota Safety Sense, which consists of features like a pre-collision system, lane departure alert, lane keeping assist, lane tracing assist, dynamic radar cruise control, and auto high beam. The other safety features offered include vehicle stability control, traction control, ABS with EBD and brake assist, hill start assist, front, and rear parking sensors, reverse camera, and seven airbags.

Compared to the standard version of the Corolla hatchback, the Toyota GR Corolla has got the right set of distinguishing elements, including the sporty-looking exterior tweaks and the hugely-impressive 300 PS engine with the 6-speed manual gearbox and sports AWD system.