RISE OF THE RSI

A project overseen by the former President and CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, the arrival in South Africa of the mighty GR Corolla reminds us of a time when the RSi badge regularly ruffled the feathers of hot-hatch royalty

- Ian McLaren

"Here is a Toyota with real fire, a real sense of purpose, its personality for once not "H smothered by compromise and a desire to please all of the people all of the time." This is one line that stands out from this publication's February 1987 road test of the first Conquest RSi.

Complete with its hard-to-ignore 16-valve livery and sharply squared-off lines, this "wet look" hatchback would, indeed, introduce an entirely new generation of South African enthusiasts to the otherwise admittedly conservative Toyota brand.

While the RSi badge would continue to showcase this Japanese brand's penchant for upstaging the establishment - including on the local racing scene - many felt that its legacy peaked with the high-revving, 4A-GEpowered Corolla RSi (and its more refined RXi sibling) from the late '90s, future iterations, including a switch to the TRD moniker, turning out to be somewhat diluted in terms of their respective mandates.

Someone else disillusioned with how cautious the Corolla nameplate had become was the former President and CEO of Toyota - and amateur racing driver - Akio Toyoda. With its Gazoo Racing division now firmly entrenched within the brand's Motomachi plant, Toyoda (or Morizo, as he is known in racing circles) would in 2018 set about creating "a Corolla that captivates customers."

Fulfilling its role as "big brother" to the feisty WRC-inspired GR Yaris, the newest Gazoo creation harnesses the ground-up, in-house drivetrain development work from its plucky sibling within the modern Corolla hatch package. This includes the turbocharged 1 618 cm³, three-cylinder motor mated exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission, as well as the brand's GR Four electronically controlled variable all-wheel drive system.