The Toyota GR Corolla is a blast of a hot hatch, but the automaker isn’t stopping there.
When it first rolled out to the public a few years ago, we rejoiced that Toyota finally, finally had a modern hot hatch we could buy with the GR Corolla. There’s always room to push farther, though, and that’s what the automaker recently teased with this new camouflaged model. What, oh what, could this possibly be? We’ll have more official information this coming fall, but the general consensus points toward this being a “GRMN” model.
And while that designation looks like Toyota just pulled some random letters out of the Scrabble bag (yes, I am one of those nerds who still plays Scrabble once in awhile), it technically stands for Gazoo Racing, the company’s motorsports arm, as well as the fact that it is “tuned by the Meister of the Nürburgring”. That last part is a nod to CEO Akio (codename “Morizo” in the early GR days) Toyoda, who took on the 24 Hours of Nürburgring himself back in 2007, as well as the tuners who’ve propelled the Gazoo Racing division to its legendary status over the years.
This isn’t the first time Toyota’s brought us a more track-focused version of the GR Corolla. The initial launch featured the Morizo Edition, which threw out some of the practical hatchbackery by ditching a couple seats and giving it a forged carbon fiber roof, revised engine tuning, a shorter final drive for the 6-speed manual transmission and more purposeful Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
Toyota didn’t give much on the way of actual information on this possible GRMN model, but did roll out a camouflaged version with plenty of visible upgrades. You get new hood vents and fender vents, as well as a rear spoiler and other notable aerodynamic tweaks. Beyond that, Toyota says it will have “a bump in torque and unique tuning”. Presently, the standard GR Corolla manages 300 horsepower from its relatively microscopic 1.6-liter three-cylinder turbo engine, as well as 295 lb-ft of torque. Once again, this camouflaged model brings Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires wrapped around 245/40-ZR18 forged BBS wheels, and odds are it will probably remain a manual-only variant. I could be totally wrong about that — you now can buy a GR Corolla with an 8-speed automatic transmission — but this smacks a dedicated (and limited-run) enthusiast model.
Particularly as the Supra bows out next year, this new performance halo for the Corolla could take some of that sting away, and just be more of a hoot to drive, regardless. Pricing for the current crop of GR Corolla models ranges between about $39,995 for the base Core and $47,125 for the Premium Plus. This performance model will probably land above this, so expect to pay more than $50K for the privilege.
Toyota says the GR team is hard at work to “fine-tune this vehicle to make it ready for Akio Toyoda’s final test drive”. If things shake out to his satisfaction, we’ll hopefully see it actually hit the streets later this year or early on in 2026.
