Toyota's GR Corolla Displays Its Rally Skills On Ice
The Toyota GR Corolla, despite its beefy wheel arches, aggressive hood vents, prominent rear spoiler, and trick all-wheel-drive system, is a homologation special for a race car that doesn't exist. There's no GR Corolla in the World Rally Championship. Instead, Toyota fields the Corolla's smaller, foreign-market sibling, the GR Yaris—which, in roadgoing form, shares its turbocharged three-cylinder powertrain and much of its mechanicals with the hotted-up Corolla. Still, to see if the GR Corolla has what it takes to back up its rally-inspired looks, we took to the ice at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and got a bit sideways.
Snow blanketed the undulating landscape surrounding the school, which is laid out on a flooded and frozen field. The Bridgestone instructors said this was one of the slipperiest days they'd seen, as the previous night's snowfall followed by rising temperatures led to a melting and freezing cycle that coated the track in a sheen of ice.
Despite the treacherous conditions, the GR Corolla—the cars we drove were 2023-model-year prototypes—felt remarkably secure. Beyond the grippy Bridgestone Blizzak winter tires, credit Toyota's quick-witted GR-Four all-wheel-drive setup—also shared with the GR Yaris—which allows you to adjust the torque distribution from a front-biased 60:40 split to a balanced 50:50 setup to a rear-biased 30:70 split.
In the more conservative 60:40 and 50:50 modes, the grip from the Blizzaks quickly gets the Corolla back in line. As soon as throttle pressure is applied, the front end hooks up and sends the hatchback in whichever direction the steering wheel is pointed, the response so immediate that you need to be certain of your steering angle before dipping into the throttle when careening between the giant snowbanks. These modes are tuned to deliver more understeer, a safer approach that lets you get a feel for the car before you try to emulate Sébastien Ogier. The GR Corolla is still playful in these situations, and a heavy dose of throttle with enough steering lock will still kick the tail out, but it's also not going to bite you too hard.
Twist the knob to the 30:70 mode, however, and the Corolla transforms into a drifting maestro, wagging its tail like an excited golden retriever. The throttle pedal is precise and reactive, letting you mete out exactly as much power to the rear wheels as you want, while the 30 percent of torque being sent to the front tires means the Corolla doesn't feel quite as snappy as a true rear-driver. This leads to easily controllable, natural slides. We mostly spent time in the Circuit and Morizo models, which feature Torsen limited-slip differentials at the front and rear that expertly distribute torque as needed, helping you look like a drifting hero while still maintaining enough traction to keep the car in check.
We also briefly sampled a Core model, which doesn't come standard with the high-tech differentials. While it still performs epic slides, the Core certainly wasn't as willing to play and required a bit more effort to keep out of the snowbanks. Despite the Core's open differentials, the fancy all-wheel-drive system remains and works impressively well.
Although our time with the GR Corolla on the ice circuit was brief, it was enough to show us that Toyota's hot hatch does have the tail-out, rally-car performance that its brawny styling promises. A few more hours behind the wheel, and we might have developed a Finnish accent.
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