Toyota unleashes GR Corolla Rally Concept, '10

Nov 05, 2023

MANILA: The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla made its premiere earlier this year, providing the hot hatch that North American auto aficionados have been clamoring for. With its GR Corolla Rally Concept, Toyota gives consumers a preview of the upcoming model's possibilities for aftermarket modification before the 2023 release of the newest member of the Toyota GR sports car model series.

The GR Corolla Rally Concept, which provides rocket fuel for fans of Toyota sports cars and rally performance, will be on show at Toyota's new and expanded booth at the 2022 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"The all-new GR Corolla checks all the driving excitement boxes – 300 horsepower, turbocharged performance, standard six-speed manual,all-wheel-drive handling and hot hatch functionality," said Lisa Materazzo, Group Vice President – Toyota Division Marketing. "The GR Corolla Rally Concept shows what happens when we apply a healthy dose of Toyota Gazoo Racing DNA and expand the GR Corolla's rallying roots."

Starting with a 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Circuit Edition, Marty Schwerter and the Toyota Motorsports Garage team – Brad Vetter, lead fabricator; Justin Lacore, fabricator; and David Senn, technician – nailed the goal of creating an ultimate rally machine. Inspired by the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris Rally World Rally Championship race car, they focused on applying many of the race car's technologies and characteristics to this concept.

The initial objective involved designing usable race car bodywork to go with the GR Corolla's already sporty appearance. They created an aggressive wide body layout with integrated carbon composite side skirts and huge 20-gauge steel, three-inch fender flares. Huge holes in the front and rear fenders divert and exhaust exhaust from the wheel apertures, and the fenders are aerodynamically shaped to produce the most downforce possible.

A large, specially made carbon fiber rear wing and a front splitter with an overall length of 4.5 inches each add more aerodynamic and downforce advantages. With side plates affixed to the hatch to align the wing with the roofline of the car, this design incorporates both a wing and a spoiler, producing two forms of downforce.

Of primary importance was increasing airflow to the custom oil and transmission coolers mounted in the interior and just behind the driver and navigator. The team custom designed functional rear quarter windows with vents directing air to the coolers, and Toyota North America R&D Engineering Design Innovation 3D-printed the components.

On the corners of the Toyota GR Corolla Rally Concept are 17 by eight-inch OZ Racing wheels with 215/60R17 Continental VikingContact 7 tires, and fully adjustable TEIN Gravel Rally coilovers to complete the package.

The team kept the GR Corolla's robust and capable brake setup with 14 x 1.1-inch ventilated and slotted rotors with four-piston aluminum calipers, then added Wilwood turning brakes – a secondary set of rear calipers – to help provide the braking and turning control needed for gravel rally terrain. Combined with the custom bodywork, the result is a stance that is six inches wider than stock.

The Toyota GR Yaris's production G16E-1.6-liter, GTS's three-cylinder, port-injected turbo, 12-valve DOHC engine has a single-scroll ball-bearing turbocharger — that already generates a respectable 300 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque — acts as the GR Corolla Rally Concept's heart. To aid improve airflow and exhaust performance, the team used MagnaFlow to incorporate a fully custom exhaust system and GR high flow air filter.

The interior is all rally driving function and purpose, with the team adding only what a rally team needs and modifying the rear seats to fit the roll cage and spare tire. The GR Corolla Rally Concept features OMP Racing seats and belts, a custom full cage made from TIG welded 1 3/4-inch x .095 DOM steel, OMP Racing fire suppression system, ZeroNoise rally intercom system and a spare tire mount and jack. With the addition of the turning brake system, the team slightly relocated the standard six-speed manual shifter to provide optimal driver ergonomics.

Adding Toyota Gazoo Racing-inspired paintwork by Complete Customs, McKinney, Texas, completes the goal of enticing the imagination of what can be done with the dynamic GR Corolla canvas.

Meanwhile, Toyota and the Toyota Motorsports Garage crew were considering what they could do with a drag strip, a $10,000 build budget, and a GR Supra.

What is better than a 10-second GR Supra, they wondered, and the answer was 10-second performances known as the "10-Second Twins." With two 10-second GR Supra coupes, the thrill is doubled.

Toyota's 2022 SEMA Show exhibit — a bigger and expanded space appropriate for the rising commitment of Toyota to on- and off-pavement performance, excitement, and adventure— featured the GR Supra 10-Second Twins.

"The GR Supra is a bonafide sports car worthy of the Supra name and at the top of our GR Gazoo Racing lineup," said Toyota Division Marketing. "And now our team has turned up the boost, giving fans yet another perspective of GR Supra performance through true quarter-mile drag racers on a relatively small budget."

Toyota's team of builders and technicians started with two 2020 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 sports cars and got busy with a plan to increase horsepower by 30 to 40%. They added a Pure Turbo single turbo and two CSF high-performance intercoolers to the stock 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder engine, then worked closely with one of the leaders in the import drag racing world, Titan Motorsports, adding a catless downpipe, 3.5-inch exhaust and an ECU tune.

Resulting figures from the modification are a whopping 620 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque, compared to the 335 horsepower and 365 lb.-ft. of torque the engine makes from the factory.

To ensure the increased horsepower and torque are put to the ground well by the Toyota GR Supra 10-Second Twins, Toyota sought assistance from tuning experts.

The team turned to the experts at Weld Racing® and Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels for a robust wheel and tire package to provide maximum traction at launch. At the rear is a set of P305/45R17 Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S R2 compound radials on 17×10-inch Weld Racing Belmont Beedlock wheels with 40 offset and 7.1 backspacing. Up front is a set of 26×6.00R18LT Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials on 18×5-inch Weld Racing Belmont Drag wheels with -23 offset and 2.1 backspacing. Upgraded rear axles from The Driveshaft Shop complete the package.

The GR Supra's robust brakes – 13.7-inch front discs with four-piston Brembo® calipers and 13.0-inch rear discs with single piston floating calipers – proved to be more than adequate for stopping power, with the team simply adding Hawk Performance® ads for added braking bite. They kept the stock eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and added a CSF hi-performance heat exchanger and a CSF transmission cooler to help handle the increased output.

Inside, fans will find the standard GR Supra 3.0 seats and purpose-built and ergonomic interior, with the only additions being G-Force Racing Gear six-point racing seat belts attached to a harness bar. Finally, Complete Customs, McKinney, Texas, created a Toyota Gazoo Racing-inspired paint scheme using Axalta Coating Systems paint, with each car sharing the same design but wearing complementary colors and graphics.

On its first test runs, the first 10-Second Twin Supra achieved a quarter-mile time in the mid-11-second range. With a bit of ECU fine tuning, the team then achieved its 10-second goal, posting a 10:984 quarter-mile run.

Toyota has presented 12 additional build concepts as well as a variety of production cars, SUVs and trucks at the 2022 SEMA Show.

Photos from Toyota

Also read: Your Sportify Playlist: Subaru BRZ vs Toyota GR86