GREAT EXPECTATIONS

GR COROLLA ARRIVES FIT, FIERY, AND READY TO TEAR INTO RIVALS. SO CAN THE CUPRA LEON AND SUBARU WRX MOUNT A CONVINCING COUNTEROFFENSIVE?

- NATHAN PONCHARD

WITH WIDESPREAD electrification making its inexorable advance in the motoring world, it's a brave move on Toyota's behalf- and perhaps a long-overdue one - to finally introduce a high-performance variant of its big-selling Corolla so late in proceedings.

We've now had two decades' worth of Volkswagen Golf R variants, a bunch of Honda Civic Type Rs and a barrage of other high-quality hot hatches, yet the 'Gazoo Racing' GR Corolla GTS is the first genuine attempt by Toyota at a redhot 'Rolla since... um, the Celica-engined Corolla Sportivo in Australia (2002-2006) and the Corolla-based, V6-engined Blade Master in Japan (2007-2012).

Yet Toyota's loyal fanbase has remained ever-faithful, scrambling to acquire every build allocation of GR product the world over, starting with the GR Yaris in 2020 and now continuing with the new GR Corolla.

Developed mostly to satisfy the North American market (which doesn't see the Yaris version), the hairiest Corolla carries over much of its baby brother's hardware and performance focus - including being six-speed-manualonly - blended into a more refined package ... though as we shall see, the highly focused GR Corolla is more incidentally liveable rather than deliberately cushy.