(upbeat music)
- My name is Faye Hadley, and you can find me on
Motor Trend's Motor MythBusters and all girls garage.
But, maybe like some of you watching this,
I started up my career on the express maintenance rack
at my local Toyota dealership.
And now I'm here, which is amazing,
kind of coming full circle with the opportunity
to share this new, amazing addition to the GR family
with y'all, couldn't be more stoked.
And if you happen to be a motor sports fan, like I am,
then you're gonna recognize this name.
(upbeat music)
The one and only Ryan Tuerck everybody! (Faye Laughs)
Thanks Faye. What's up guys? I am formula drift driver,
Ryan Tuerck, and driver of the Toyota racing GR Corolla,
and we actually just had a phenomenal debut of the car
winning our first round of competition this year,
which is an awesome way to kick off the GR Corolla platform,
and I'm stoked to work with Faye
and talk about the GR Corolla.
I know, we had an awesome time out on the track just now.
And, so you know, I had just taken some hot laps.
I was feeling really comfortable in the car.
I had no idea what this car was capable of
handling wise until you got behind the wheel.
(Ryan laughs) so I'm glad that you're here joining me.
- I did my best, so I'm not a professional road racer,
but I definitely, tried to put it through its paces.
Well, you sure fooled me and probably
everyone watching this. So that being said,
let's hop into the technical aspects of this car.
All right, so I know we all wanna geek out on tech specs.
I know I do. But before that there's
a couple things I wanna touch on first.
So for those of you that have been following
the Gazoo Racing product line since the very beginning,
one thing I wanna make very clear is
that the GR badge is not something
that is just slapped on the back of
a special edition model, it is actually earned.
- Exactly, yeah Morizo actually delayed production
of the GR Corolla for an entire year
because it didn't meet his standards.
- That's so-
- Which is crazy!
- I know, like who does that?
- So they, they went back, they fine tuned the car
and here we are today with an amazing vehicle.
- Yeah and here we are today from a consumer standpoint
and also from the driver standpoint,
so it's really nice to have your input on this,
so I can sort of see through his eyes.
But from the technical standpoint,
one thing I think is fascinating,
knowing that these cars are each built
by the best of the best at the Motomachi plant,
which is sort of famous for the legendary LFA.
So we're talking about rich heritage,
rich history here, and (singsong),
we make this incredible hot hatch sports car.
But that being said though, I just sort of
wanna get your opinion, like what makes this a sports car?
- I think, I mean, I gotta say number one,
there's nothing I don't like about the new GR Corolla.
I think it is just top to bottom, absolutely unbelievable.
What makes a sports car to me, I guess, is, you know,
something lightweight, power, suspension, drivetrain.
And I think this car has all of those things that,
you know, make a sports car.
- Absolutely, and I mean, from the outside,
I'm not a race car driver, so I don't have that experience,
but from looking at it from a consumer standpoint,
I will say, this thing looks aggressive.
Every single vent on this thing is functional.
It's got a wide stance, it's got an aggressive stance,
and it's just like, I mean it looks fast going still.
- It does (laughing)
- And powering this bad beast is the G16E-GTS.
It's a 1.6 liter turbo charged three cylinder engine,
but can't let those numbers fool you, people.
This thing packs an incredible 300 horsepower
and 273 foot pounds of torque at 4,000 RPM,
which we definitely felt out there.
- Yeah the car feels amazing pulling you out of,
especially those tight turns, mated with
the six speed transmission, which is geared perfectly
and the IMT, which is the rev matching downshift.
And if there's, we're in 2022,
if there's some a button that I can press,
that's gonna rev match for me, I'm doing it.
- Especially if it makes me seem like
a better driver than I actually am, I will take it!
But speaking of being out on the racetrack,
there was something else that I noticed
while you were driving, and that is the exhaust.
Now this is a spot where Toyota
actually gathered a little bit more horsepower from
it's a three piece exhaust uniquely designed,
that has a flap that opens up right around 4,000 RPM,
releases the horses from the stable,
and sounds incredible while doing it.
- It absolutely sounds incredible.
Another thing that is incredible on this car
is the GR-Four system and something that we got
to test back to back on three separate laps
for the three different modes,
which are sport, normal and track.
And my favorite was track, which is,
which is the 50 50 torque split.
And then you have normal, which is 60 front 40 rear,
and then sport, which is the 30 front 70.
So if you like a car that drives out the rear end,
then sport is definitely your choice.
And if that's not enough, there's also
an available Torsen front and rear differential setup.
So what you're saying is million different ways
that I can seem like a better driver in this car.
So whether we're going on dirt, or snow, or the track,
or if you're just like going to get
groceries or something like that, there's a mode for you.
And actually there's one more thing that I wanted to
hit on before we sort of moved away from track,
and that was something we really felt out there,
which kind of a hallmark of the GR brand
is structural rigidity. This thing felt planted,
and that goes into the engineering,
there's extra adhesives, extra weld points,
extra stiffness braces, and we really felt that.
And actually you made reference to that,
especially during heavy breaking.
- Yeah, I cannot say enough good things about
the braking system on this car,
14 inch four piston fronts, 11.7 inch two piston rears,
and we were ripping for like four laps,
very hard hard braking everywhere
and the brakes didn't fade once.
So I am beyond impressed with the system
that they put on the GR Corolla.
- And this is something that every new owner
of a GR product, including the GR Corolla,
gets to experience for themselves,
because when you buy one of these cars,
you get a one year membership to NASA,
and that includes a high performance driving class.
So, not all y'all have the opportunity to experience
what I experience on the track today
with a professional driver behind the wheel.
But, you could actually experience
a little bit with a professional driver
in your passenger seat, sort of giving you
instruction and helping you feel what this car has to offer.
- Absolutely.
- So with that being said, I cannot thank you enough
for this experience, it was so fun out there
on the track, and I just, I had a blast.
So thank you for making time for us today
- It's been a pleasure working with you too,
and so rad that this, we got to shake
this thing down today together.
- I know, it's pretty cool. So with that
being said speaking of track time,
we've got like a little bit more time, to hit the track.
- Let's go!
- So we're gonna go, and y'all get to see
what we got to experience earlier today, so, let's go!
- Bye!
- We're gonna start in normal mode,
which is, 60 front 40 rear.
- Awesome.
- And then I'm turning on the IMT
to help rev match on downshift.
- Oh, that is so cool.
- In this amazingly geared six speed transmission.
- All right. So we are setting the baseline of normal mode.
- All right! The turn in feels awesome.
- Oh my god. (laughing)
- Gonna stay patient on this turn.
Come on, come on, baby!
- This is seatbelt strength test number one.
- I gotta say this car is pretty forgiving on,
- Oh my gosh.
- On the turn in standpoint.
- It feels like we're floating.
Watching the, okay, so there we have 6500 RPM
is where we're supposed to get maximum horsepower.
I'm feeling it. I don't know exactly what speed,
but maybe somewhere in here is
where we start to feel the stability coming
in from those functional vents.
- I'm breaking as late as I possibly can,
and they feel rock solid.
- We're gonna try track mode, which is the 50 50.
- Okay.
But the way this thing handles though,
it's like, there's nothing unpredictable about it.
Normally it's like, I gotta be the driver,
I gotta, I've got to be able to
anticipate what the car is gonna do.
- Right?
- It feels so planted and glued,
like so easy to drive. Very predictable.
The chassis is nice and stiff.
- This car took what, like a year longer than they wanted,
like they wanted to put it out a year before
they actually did, but it had to hold up to Akio Toyoda's.
- Yeah, Morizo.
- Morizo's
- AKA Morizo's, expectations.
- Yes!
- This car embodies what you would expect
from a hot hatch, so much better though.
The performance- (Screaming)
- We're now in sport mode, which is 30 front 70 rear.
- Ooh. Okay. Wow.
- So we should feel it drive off the
rear end a little bit better.
- Yep. It just happened back there.
Yeah. Wow. Okay.
First of all, switching between the modes,
I was expecting to be able to feel something.
It is so smooth, the transition
between every single mode, normal track and sport.
So I can definitely vouch for the race inspired seats.
- Yes.
- I'm definitely feeling that
- The seats feel phenomenal. I mean,
we are, we're putting this things through
its paces right now and I am not moving in this seat.
- No
- I think this thing sounds amazing.
- I know! You can tell right around
4,000 RPM when it opens up.
- Yep!
- Goes to that full exhaust mode,
removes all of its restrictions and
just like really opens itself up.
- But then it has, it feels like it has
that proper back pressure down low before it
opens up and start frees everything up for the top end.
- I wonder if that's where like the,
the added torque, where that torque curve,
I think is just like maximum torque is like 3,500 RPM.
- Yeah.
- So it's like, it's building it up,
and then it's like releasing all the horses
- Exactly.
- Into this like perfect little package of hot hatch,
like turbo charge, all wheel drive.
I don't know. It's like-
- Three cylinder!
- Making 300 horsepower and 273 foot pounds of torque.
- I mean, that's-
- That's a hundred horsepower per cylinder.
From the factory!
- From the factory. I mean, I don't know
what more you could want.
(Laughs)
Maybe a few more laps.
- Maybe.
- Maybe a few more laps. What's unique about these,
these calipers too, they're not floating style.
They're planted, like they sort of use on,
on more the Toyota trucks. So,
you're actually getting all four pistons
in the front caliper actually,
- Yeah.
- And rears are, are, are not floating either.
They're all fixed calipers. So,
like you're getting maximum braking power.
You're getting all of those brake pads
pushing together at this exact same time.
- They're big, it's a big set of brakes,
- Yeah!
- A 14 inch front rotor, and like, I think it's 11,
just under 12 inches in the rear.
It's plenty of braking power for this car.
(Tense Music)