The return of a hot Toyota Corolla Hatchback might be a real thing with the help of Toyota’s Gazoo Racing sub-brand.
Toyota is no stranger to making hot hatchbacks. The Celica, Supra, Yaris and Corolla have, over the years, yielded sporty and desirable hot hatch body styles, all of which are extremely desirable today.
Toyota’s Gazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand, responsible for the touted, and limited to Europe Yaris GR (205-horsepower), has been bombarded with requests to build a hot Corolla hatchback since, or nearly, the car first broke cover.
Apparently, push for this car is also originating from the inside as Tetsuya Tada, Toyota 86 and new Supra Project Leader, would like to see Toyota have its own line of performance vehicles. We’ve driven the new Corolla hatchback a few times and know that its chassis can take much more power, and tuning.
How much more will really depend on who and what Toyota and GR are gunning after. We think that 250-horsepower will be a minimum if only to out-power the VW GTI. We’ll not be surprised if we learn that the number is closer (if not over) 300-horsepower to put the spank on the Hyundai i30 and Veloster N, the Volkswagen Golf R, the Honda Civic Type R and the Subaru WRX and WRX STI. Whether or not it’ll be AWD is another question.
There’s nothing else to go on for the moment. We do hope that, should it be built, it will come to North America, unlike the Yaris GR.
