In this day and age, most manufacturers seem to be playing it safe with their car launches. Toyota, on the other hand, just seems to be dropping some unexpectedly awesome cars. From the obvious Supra to a very unexpected (but well received) 300hp RAV4 Prime and everything in between, the company has definitely taken their president’s words to heart. Today, however, they’re tapping back into a market that they’ve been out of for quite some time. The Toyota GR Corolla compact sports car / hot hatch fills the void that the Celica GT-Four left us. Rutledge and I got an invitation by Toyota to come take a quick look at the car a few days before the launch to not only give us time to drool all over the brand new GR-Four, but to allow their staff enough time to clean up our drool before the launch. Take a look.
I think i’ve ridden this out long enough it looks good i feel like andy bell’s cousin what’s up everyone welcome to a very very special episode of my youtube channel we got my good friend rutledgewood what’s up larry this is so exciting thanks for having me is this crazy or what i love you you know that i don’t tell you that enough i have a lot of friends and
Favorites in this industry and larry’s at the top of all of those so let’s just get that just out at the beginning it’s obvious why we’re here but we’re two corolla nerds here we’re we’re hatchback e210 nerds that’s right you just finished yours for a second time i’d change mine up because i couldn’t put a camera mount on mine when we built these for sema that
Would have been 2018 yeah 2018. the 2019 model yeah you built your amazing hatchback uh and i stood over there was like oh look at those i didn’t get to build one but i ended up buying one after that because i loved yours so much and i took mine i tried to lift it and do some crazy stuff and then i was like that didn’t really work out it was fun but then i decided
To lower it do some other stuff and then i found out about this that was a very special car for me that was my first team at car 2018 you know toyota reached out to me to build one and i was thinking at the time there’s just so many things i could possibly do but because it’s a brand new car nobody made parts for it i just wanted to go a different route so i kind
Of made it like a rally car first i had mud flaps it was raised with integrale style wheels i actually took it out in the desert and i jumped it did you do that with the camera no no no i did like a two-parter so the first part was hey here’s the car here’s me jumping it in the desert a slight jump okay very very minor sure it was just to kind of show the fact
That when i saw that car for the first time i immediately thought rallycross or rally car just the way it looks you know absolutely it’s aggressive and it’s practical and come to find out after all these years they had this up their sleeves this whole time i want to point out before we walk over to the gr corolla that the e210 the corolla hatchback i think is
Toyota’s most underrated car it is so fun to drive it’s great mileage looks great and now there are a bunch of parts available for them when you built yours for sema or when i started messing with mine there weren’t as many but the cars really taken off and to your point about seeing this vision of what we could do with these this is it you know the thing is as
Much as i love that e210 unfortunately with the xse model six-speed manual which is the top of the line while we still enjoyed using it on track and we used it for camera car stuff all that it just was missing a turbocharger on it it was missing a turbocharger maybe i don’t know almost roughly twice the horsepower yeah this car solves that now we’re looking
At what is referred to as the circuit edition of the 2022 gr corolla here’s what’s cool this car really doesn’t have to exist it is it is here for people like us oh man just seeing it say turbo for the first time the funny thing is uh we’re rolling now uh you walked in here and you maybe have whatever five minutes with these cars so far ever ever same thing
For me you know i took a couple pictures before we started rolling but i’m just as giddy as you are because it’s just this is what we want this is built for the enthusiasts i’m gonna be surprised if they can keep up the production line to fulfill all the orders i feel like you’re right especially here’s the thing with sti gone until who knows when this is a car
That that we have been begging for yes we wanted the yaris because it was the only one like this didn’t exist so of course we’re like oh we want an all-wheel drive hatchback that’s turbo you bet by the way i can’t fit in that you might you’re two inches shorter maybe maybe you didn’t yeah like but then like where do we put the kids this car is gonna solve all
Those problems and i’m so excited when you look at the space too for those of you that like to play with cars and make a few tweaks if this thing at 1.6 liters three cylinder turbo with a hundred horsepower per cylinder stock untouched larry incredible it goes up from there you know the people that have been modifying the grs which is a similar motor package
It’s insane how much power they’re able to make absolutely with which for the aftermarket it this is the car this is so good for the aftermarket the fact that this is a new car that you can buy available today that can do center axis donuts yup you think these just appeared out of nowhere they didn’t no i didn’t do them kangushi and ryan turk they were here
Just not long ago before we came and i talked to ryan and he did center axis donuts in this in stock form i mean really i still can’t believe that this car is here in front of us like when i heard that it might happen i got so excited because with the gr badge gaza racing it takes a ton to earn that badge for a car because also just like the supra if you
Look at the the 86 you know toyota’s done a really great job of giving us cars that we said we wanted they worked hard on them they created you know we all loved the original hachi guess what they handed us at the time the fr-s now known as the 86. it’s a fantastic car so when you look at them the supra the gr super which i know you have one i have one there
Incredible cars and so much fun look at this magic it says gr4 which totally reminds me of like the gt4 yeah right that st205 st185 this hood actually reminds me of that you know because on the st205 and 185 there’s like that vent just for i think the alternator right or like just one little dumb little things functional yeah functional functional so this is
Evacuating the hot air that’s what i’m assuming just because of where it’s pointing absolutely it’s evacuating the hot air from the intercooler and radiator but look how cool the intercooler is it says gr4 on it how crazy is that i mean it’s just so awesome there’s so few cars that i think we see and we go oh yeah it’s great i’m i’m ready to go rock it like
This is going to be one of those ones that once we get i assume you’re going to get one yes good oh yeah you i don’t know how we would even begin to to start to change it because we’ve got the core edition right over there and that one’s going to be available first this one’s going to be a 2023 model year only so um larry and i will be one and two on the list
Y’all gonna have to get in line but when you look at this car you think oh man i just i just need to go drive it like it’s it’s what’s the immediate thing what’s the main thing that jumps out at you being an e210 owner yes what’s the thing like the wide body it’s obviously a lot wider yeah stance is is huge it it looks to me like it’s got this like growl about
It the grill is amazing you know one of the things i really liked about the e210 what were these accent lights but the fact that they were able to keep that and then have this massive grille which by the way all of these vents are 100 functional absolutely which you know what toyota you know i gotta call toyota out for some things the one thing i hate so much
About my tundra is that damn giant fake hood scoop it’s so bad larry if you didn’t drive in the desert so much you could open that up okay that’s i think that’s on you that’s a personal thing the the front bumper definitely has more of the apex corolla style which i swapped my hatchback bumper for an apex one because i loved it so much but larry when you see
This it’s so much wider flair of the body yes the wide body the stance the side skirt yeah gt gr4 being on there is just so great so it is that legendary all-wheel drive system yeah you really see it it’s it’s a completely different car in so many ways and then when you come to the back you go wait a second i see one i see two three one and they’re functional
Too they’re not absolutely that’s another thing i hated about the e210 is the fake exhaust how dare you i hated that so much i i cut them out yeah and i had arc performance make me real dual exhaust well i think that’s awesome i mean my mine has dual magnaflows on there right and i use the tom’s lower fairing on there but but with that said this is functional
And you were talking to the engineer before we started rolling yes and one of the big things in terms of making more power than let’s say the yaris was having a more exhaust flow that’s right they got a back pressure reduced back pressure and one of the ways they found they could do that was that center exhaust is more of a straight through bypass so just like
In the gr super when you fire it up you know until it builds oil pressure it has the bypass opened up it’s a little bit louder that this car will have a similar thing but at 4 000 rpm when you’re building boost in the only six-speed manual you can’t get it in automatic uh when you hit 4000 rpm it’s going to open up that center exhaust this is a future classic
Sitting here right now absolutely this is something that i mean i’m just going to put it out there if you buy this it’s going to go up in price it is like this is a collector car because there’s so few people that care about making something a this fun or be a card that will actually last like toyota when they make cars like this they want to make sure that it
Hits all the same touch points that every other toyota does which we know means it’s going to last it’s going to hold its value it’s going to be safe reliable there’s so many different things but by the way it’s going to haul the mail doing it and it can literally haul the groceries like that’s what as you know as a e-210 owner when you put all your camera gear
Back here you can actually still use the car the functionality of it is so so big i love love love love this wing too so much you know the thing is um in my eyes i think i even want a bigger one that honestly goes on because what does this feel like to you uh like when you see especially from the side to me you’ve been on enough rally stages like that looks
Like a true right rally wig yeah like uh something that’s regulated yeah like a wrc or a rallycross car yes it has that kind of feel but i’m with you like a little causey style if we go bigger yeah absolutely you could how about the forged carbon fiber roof so good so many little things that and also look how much wider this is too absolutely r than the e210
I mean it’s cool to have that kind of flare when you look on the inside the circuit edition is going to have alcantara on the seats it also has a autographed shift knob that’s uh akio toyota’s signature which is so engraved on the shift knob i mean when you think about what a ceo and a president of a company like what their seal of approval is you know for him
Uh it’s making sure that the criticism that people gave toyota for years which was the cars were two plain or two vanilla like he was offended by that and said that’s not true we make rad stuff let’s prove it you want to talk about turning it around though i mean there was one point i think the only car that was kind of exciting or that was more sporty was the
Mrs right or like or the last mr2 sure once that went away there was nothing what was left a celica you know and then celica was fun right yes but but but you you want to talk about coming back around you got scion and the frs came out and then the supra and this that another now there’s three gr cars it’s insane and in and what i tell people is that these are
Cars that are not insane volume numbers these are cars made for people who love to drive and when you sit in there huge touch screen carplay it’s so simple and easy to use and functional but then also you have the ability to change the power how much goes to the front or the rear yes that’s one thing that actually blew my mind i was reading the press materials i
Cannot it’s almost like you could put it in like a drift mode at that point you know which is 30 front 70 rare really tossable i don’t even know what mode ryan turk put it in to make this let’s talk about the fact that the seats almost look like supra seats yeah absolutely they do i mean and and again oh man it feels so good that feels way different i thought
Mine felt good this feels way different if when you order this some of you need a selling point to your spouse this still has the imt the intelligent manual transmission which essentially it feels like there’s a tiny wizard under the dash helping you not stall the car out so if you’re also a person who said i’ve always wanted to have a manual and i’ve dreamed
It i haven’t been able to learn yet this also by the way will help you do that the key if it’s in there it it has a little gr badge on it like how cool is that the the sport mode dial yeah you know the start stop button is a gr button come on it makes you feel like a million bucks driving something that honestly still to to this day i’m standing in front of
It i just cannot believe it exists and i think that’s what’s so cool is that this is a car for us they don’t have to make this they made it because we were begging them to bring us something this fun and now it’s here so only real big differences on the core versus the circuit are honestly it’s the little touches like the hood vents and the forged carbon roof
Uh seat material is a little bit different on there which to be honest that’s not for everybody and so i feel like the majority people are going to jump after this one and just love it to pieces but the crazy thing is the power is the same yes absolutely it’s really just a an aesthetic package more um for the circuit where you get you know the shift knob the
Different materials on the seats the roof but let’s be honest we’ve had some weird cars before a carbon fiber roof is not for everyone we’ve certainly learned right larry and i’ve made enough fun cars and videos where you’re like man people are gonna love this and they’re like bro why did you do that yeah what maybe we wanted under glow on our car that was
Our prerogative okay don’t take it out of this but yeah i i love the car and the spoiler is the other big difference this is more kind of more like the e210 one where it’s a little more subdued honestly if you weren’t into cars and you saw this in traffic it would just kind of blend in but if you knew anything about cars yeah this is kind of what i always like
To say about the m cars for bmw hey if you know what a m3 is or m5 and it’s not just a regular three series to you you’ll you’ll just know that it’s something special you know the driver is uh enjoying something that has more power whatever when you look at these two cars and think we’re actually getting these these are coming here you know and the process
For a car to get that gr badge i think we hit a little bit but it it is a rigorous thing that takes a long time because this didn’t like just happen this is years in the making 18s all the way around the brakes are massive set up with opposing caliper positions that’s another thing i want to talk about can we talk about the fact that this has a real handbrake
Absolutely the e210 it’s an electric like caliper parking setup this you can actually if you know how to use a handbrake this will be really fun for that let me just sit in it real quick so um one of the things that i always like to talk about uh when you’re talking about like a new car or car that you’re experiencing are the things that you’re able to touch
Right manual transmission look how big this handbrake is it’s so cool and also on top of that the steering wheel it feels so much more premium than the e210 one and yeah this is definitely a very very big upgrade this is awesome i can’t wait let’s go drive ours together somewhere yeah let me do that i feel like maybe maybe toyota will let us borrow some of the
Core edition while we wait on our circuit edition oh it’s going to be so crazy so for me mud flaps wheels to start with you know maybe exhaust coilovers for sure yeah and i don’t know intake maybe bigger intercooler now i’m getting too deep you are i’m gonna go i’m gonna go a different way with mine are you ready yeah um i’m gonna tint the windows okay i’m gonna
Drive it eventually i’ll put a magnaflow setup on there i hope it’s a triple set up um yeah that’s it i’m just gonna drive it i’m gonna drive it there you go driver’s car really i hope you guys enjoyed this so this is actually uh the day before the launch so when you see this video the car will already be launched you’re gonna love it hey um larry i love you
Thanks for letting me be a part of this with you if you guys have never seen larry chen trapped in the airport i need you to search that video on youtube you were with your friend joe ayala yes and uh that’s at dfw at dfw it’s my favorite it is still my favorite video second to backup terry on youtube back it up back up back it up larry back it up larry that’s
What we’re gonna do back up larry oh my god amazing oh me me you
Transcribed from video
FIRST LOOK At The All New Toyota GR Corolla! Is it The True Celica GT-Four Successor? By Larry Chen
