Is a Corolla with 300 hp still a Corolla?
and sitting in pit lane awaiting our turn at a 2.1-mile section of Utah Motorsports Park's wildly undulating road course, we felt slightly silly. Until now, we imagined, the only people who'd ever worn helmets inside a dealership-ready Corolla were off-kilter folks with visions of, well, something as absurd as a track-ready production.
If the regular Corolla casts as wide a net as possible, the GR Corolla is a precision-guided missile aimed at driving enthusiasts. Under the hood sits an unusual 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-three engine making 300 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission and an all-wheel-drive system with driver-selectable front-to-rear torque splits. Oh, and with all this kit,, with fully optioned Core models running less than 40 grand.
Weaving through Utah Motorsports Park's series of similar corners—there are plenty of late-apex, double-apex-type curves—allows us to quickly compare the GR Corolla Core, Circuit, and Morizo Edition models. A few difference makers become apparent: The Core's and Circuit's tires and the Morizo's extra boost, torque, and grip from its spicier rubber.
With its extra sneeze of boost and shorter-ratio transmission, the Morizo suffers less for the engine's powerband. The gearing is simply better matched to the three-cylinder, at least at Utah Motorsports Park, and everything about the powertrain is just that much sharper. We wish every GR came with this setup, even if we giggle at the idea of a Corolla, a car renowned for asking little of its tuned-out drivers, challenging us to time our shift points and keep the engine on boil.
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