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At the reveal of the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla, we grabbed a few minutes with Toyota’s chief engineer on the project, Naoyuki Sakamoto, to dig into some of the challenges in developing the car, and what he thinks makes it so capable on track. C/D: Everyone here in the States was so jealous of the Yaris GR. How soon after Yaris did the team start the GR Corolla?NS: Actually, we started to develop the GR Corolla in 2018. So before Yaris, we were working on it. I’d say almost the same time we are developing both cars. The GR Corolla uses a three-cylinder engine. Was that designed for Yaris and adapted, or planned for Corolla originally? The Corolla is using the Yaris engine, but to bring it to the U.S. market we thought we’d need more power, so we started modifications to make that possible. Americans demand power. We are like that. If horsepower was a goal, why stick with the three-cylinder? Wouldn’t it have been easier to turbocharge a four cylinder?Actually, the compact engine is right for a sports car. The more you can keep heavy parts close to the center of gravity, the better it handles, so a lighter engine is better. A lighter car is better.What does the Circuit Edition weigh?3200 pounds.

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So to make more power, what did you do? You didn’t bore or stroke it, it’s the same size as the Yaris’s engine, but what, 30 more horses? And a three-cylinder needs a balance shaft, right? And this is twin-cam?Yeah, 300, up from 268 hp. We increased the boost, and to do that, we needed to reduce the backpressure. We needed to move more fuel in, more exhaust gas out, and it creates a high backpressure. And yes, a balance shaft, and twin-cam, of course.How do you keep everything cool? We did so much testing on track, in summer, in winter. We opened up the grille, you can see, it’s huge compared to a stock Corolla. Vents to direct air through. Even the intake, we have a thin intake for slow speed, to move air through quickly, and another duct below that opens at higher rpm, to bring more air into the engine. Is the whole chassis and body different than a stock Corolla?

The chassis is reinforced, 349 more welds and 2.7 meters more sealant, more glue. The floor is different in the back from stock, to make room for the differential. We also moved the battery from front to back for better weight distribution. The front fenders are one piece, the back extensions are bolt-on. The carbon roof is only for GR. The doors are the same as a stock car. The suspension geometry for the front uses a new connecting point, 15 mm higher to make the roll center higher, and we made it stiffer but also lighter, just in the design. And the GR-Four, the AWD, is that a performance version of what a customer would get in say, a RAV4?[NS laughs and brings over the AWD specialist, who also laughs]. It’s the GR system that is unique to this vehicle here in the States. It’s developed through racing, from our rally series. It’s going to offer a lot of acceleration control in different conditions. Was the choice to use forged carbon fiber for the roof rather than a woven carbon because it keeps the price down, or because it’s stylish and new?Both! You tired of talking about this car yet?No! I’m excited about it. We built it with a lot of passion.

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New vehicles sold in the U.S. must average 49 mpg fleet-wide by 2026, according to new federal fuel-economy standards announced today.The Department of Transportation said the new requirements are intended to improve fuel efficiency, cut down on fuel costs, and reduce emissions. People who buy new in 2029 will save about $1400 total on fuel costs over the vehicle’s lifetime, but the average new-vehicle price will also rise by about $1100.Every automaker will now need its fleet of light-duty vehicles sold in the U.S. to average 49 mpg by 2026. This new federal requirement is part of changes made to Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which were announced today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (It’s important to note that these mpg numbers are unadjusted figures that don’t represent what individual cars can be expected to achieve. You can anticipate that 49 mpg unadjusted will yield a figure somewhere in the mid-30s on an average window sticker. For a thorough explanation of CAFE regulations and what they mean to actual fuel economy in your vehicle, see our earlier story on the subject.)

With better MPG comes less money spent on gas—about $1387 less over the lifetime of a vehicle bought new in the 2029 model year. However, the agency also acknowledged that requiring automakers to make vehicles more fuel-efficient will mean the cost of new vehicles will go up—by about $1087 on average, NHTSA said. The new CAFE standards take effect in 2024 and will require automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 8 percent annually for the 2024 and 2025 model years. By 2026, that figure will rise to 10 percent. Compared with the 2021 model year, the new standards are also expected to improve the industry’s fleet-wide average by about 10 miles per gallon for 2026 models. Right now, as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in remarks today, the average fuel economy of the U.S. 2021 vehicle fleet is 36 mpg, and the new standard will increase that by 33 percent by 2026. NHTSA’s press release claims that updating the requirements for 2024 through 2026 models will decrease fuel consumption by over 200 billion gallons through 2050 versus if the old standards stayed in place, as well as cut greenhouse-gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil.
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Revisions to the suspension and power delivery made the 964-based 1993–1994 911 Turbo, currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, the first of its kind that didn’t bite.A nearly identical sample we tested back in the day had an as-built price of $109,644. Fewer than 1500 were built.This clean 1994 model has just 25,987 miles, and bidding is open until Sunday afternoon, April 3, with the current bid at $310,000.This particular 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 isn’t 100 percent authentic, but it is an extremely well-cared-for example with just under 26,000 miles on its odometer. The minor (and perfectly reasonable) modifications it has acquired over the years—aftermarket springs, stereo, and exhaust—seem readily reversible to anyone wishing to put it back to fully-stock condition.

But that’s not the point. We’re interested in this particular car because we tested one almost exactly like it back in mid-1993. This was the stage at which a 3.6-liter air-cooled turbo engine replaced the blown 3.3-liter that came before. This enlarged turbocharged flat-six made some 355 horsepower and 384 pound-feetof torque, but with that came a much more drivable power curve that was, according to us at the time, much more accessible to mere humans because “One no longer needs to have graduated from the Hans Stuck opposite-lock academy to explore the full potential of this car’s awesome power.”

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Stylistically, the 964 generation of the 911 is notable because it is the last iteration where, at first glance, the majority of its body panels look like they emerged from the same stamping dies that produced earlier 911s. That’s largely the case, except here the front and rear bumpers are fully integrated into the body. Underneath, though, the changes were more drastic, with coil springs replacing the torsion bars found on earlier models, and essentials like power steering and ABS making an appearance for the first time. The 964 isn’t the last generation to be air cooled, though. That distinction belongs to the 993 that came after.

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In testing, the 1994 911 Turbo impressed us at the time, with a 4.0-second zero-to-60-mph spurt and a 12.4-second quarter-mile pass, which is a little better than the Cayman S we tested five years ago. As for the tires, we enthused at the time that its 18-inch 225/40 front and 265/35 rear tires were “the fattest, lowest-aspect-ratio tires ever offered on a 911, and they cling to the road with a magnetic grip that feels to be easily more than 0.90 g.” One would hope. Today, in Porsche terms, 1.1 g is the new 0.90 g.

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What we didn’t know at the time was that the 1993–1994 911 Turbo 3.6 we wrote about would go on to be one of the most desirable 911s on the planet, with fewer than 1500 examples produced. At the time of this writing, the Guards Red car that is the subject of this auction had been bid up to three times higher than the cost of our original test car. It will surely be higher by the time you read this, with a couple more days of bidding yet to come before the auction ends on Sunday, April 3. Where will it wind up? We’re not sure we want to know.

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The 2022 Mercedes-AMG EQS will start at $148,550 when the all-electric sedan goes on sale this spring.Mercedes says the AMG EQS includes two years of free fast charging at Electrify America, but sessions are limited to 30 minutes.The 2022 AMG EQS will be offered in two well-equipped trim levels: Exclusive and Pinnacle.The price of admission for the electrified luxury thrill ride known as the 2022 Mercedes-AMG EQS is a cool $148,550. That six-figure starting price nets the buyer the first fully electric model from AMG, which fans of the brand will recognize as Mercedes’s storied performance division.

Every AMG EQS features a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive powertrain that generates 649 horsepower, but that output goes as high as 751 ponies. We’ve experienced firsthand the breathtaking acceleration that all that electrified horsepower provides. What we haven’t experienced is the free fast-charging access at Electrify America charging stations that Mercedes says it’ll provide for the first two years. While the company says the number of times owners can charge is unlimited, each individual session is limited to 30 minutes.

Mercedes-AMG

Along with announcing the starting price of the 2022 AMG-tuned EQS, Mercedes says that it’ll be offered in either Exclusive or Pinnacle trim levels when it reaches the U.S. market this spring. The list of features that come standard on both models includes the 56-inch Hyperscreen, an adjustable air suspension with adaptive dampers that are specially tuned, and rear-axle steering that can turn up to nine degrees.
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The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch is here with 300 horsepower and all-wheel drive.A six-speed manual transmission is standard on both the base model, called Core, and the Circuit Edition. The GR Corolla will go on sale in the U.S. starting later this year.Are we in the midst of a hot-hatch revival? Let’s say yes, because we want that. Apparently Toyota wants it too, as it’s finally given us a look at the eagerly awaited 2023 GR Corolla.We’ve been jealously watching Gazoo Racing—Toyota’s performance and motorsports division—turn out tuned-up versions of cars we can’t get here in the states, most recently the Yaris GR. Thankfully, it looks like the GR Corolla is going to offer us everything we liked about that car and more.

The GR Corolla will be offered in two trims: Core and Circuit Edition. The latter adds a carbon-fiber roof, hood bulge, and larger rear spoiler. Both trims are rally-car wide and RC-car silly in the best way, with chunky, vented fenders and a tweaked version of the Corolla’s big frown of a grille that makes the GR look like it’s laughing.
Why wouldn’t it be happy? Under the hood it’s got a souped-up version of the turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder from the Yaris GR. In the Yaris, the engine makes 257 hp. In the Corolla, the G16E-GTS will make an astounding 300 hp and 273 pound-feet of torque. That’s 100 horses per cylinder. To up the power output, the Corolla exhaust uses three exhaust exits for reduced backpressure. As a bonus, it looks cool coming out the back. To keep the direct-injected engine together at its 6500 rpm max power peak, the three cylinders use jets of oil to cool the pistons, large exhaust valves to quickly vent spent gasses, and a machined intake port for better flow. If three exhaust tips and three oil-cooled pistons aren’t enough to get you excited, how about six gears, as in, a manual transmission? The GR Corolla aims for the hearts of purists by coming only with a six-speed manual transmission with a rev-match function.

The Corolla also has Toyota’s first sporty all-wheel-drive system in decades. Dubbed GR-Four—and embossed on the door sills in a nice little historical throwback to the GT-Four rally cars of the ‘80s—the system is designed for multiple terrains and quick adjustability. The standard setting is a 60:40 front to rear torque distribution, but it can go as rear-wheel biased as 30:70, or put in an even 50:50. However you split it, power feeds to open differentials as standard with an option for front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials as part of the Performance package on the Core (the Torsen diffs are standard on the Circuit Edition).

To prepare for the gravel-spewing, rise-jumping life your GR Corolla will surely have, the frame has additional welds to strengthen joints and more structural adhesive used between glued components. The front suspension uses tuned struts while the rear is a multilink setup designed around the AWD system. The GR is wider than a standard Corolla by 2.4 inches, and uses those fat fenders to house Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires in 235/40R-18 size on gloss-black 15-spoke alloy wheels. Behind the wheels are slotted 14.0-inch brake rotors in the front and 11.7-inch rotors in the rear. The Circuit Edition clamps ‘em to a stop with red calipers marked with the GR logo.
The GR’s interior is not as dramatic a departure from a normal Corolla as the exterior is, but there are still some racy touches to set it apart. That’s especially true in the Circuit Edition, which gets a leather-trimmed steering wheel, a signed shifter, suede and faux leather sports seats with red details, and badges on the headrests. The Core model gets cloth seats without red accents, but both models get a GR-only performance readout in the 12.3-inch gauge cluster, a short-throw shifter, and a mechanical parking brake. Hello, parking lot shenanigans. The infotainment software and comfort features look standard Corolla, with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay capability, multiple charge ports, and optional wireless charging. Safety and driver-assistance features may seem like anachronisms in a car so intended for hooliganism, but if your parking lot shenanigans shenan you towards a light pole or a pedestrian, both versions of the GR Corolla come standard with Toyota Safety Sense 3.0’s suite of features. Pricing has yet to be released, but we’re hoping for something in the low $30,000 range. The GR Corolla will go on sale later in 2022, and we’ll be eagerly waiting to get one lined up for a hot-hatch shootout.
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The newly announced 2023 Toyota GR Corolla gets a revised version of the G16E-GTS turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine that makes 300 horsepower, or some 185.4 horsepower per liter. A six-speed manual is the only transmission, and the shift lever sits adjacent to a prominent pull-style handbrake.The standard GR Four all-wheel-drive system offers three driver-selectable front/rear torque splits, plus available Torsen limited-slip differentials.North Americans who were paying attention were mighty upset when it was announced that the rally-inspired Toyota GR Yaris and its turbocharged three-cylinder engine that delivers 257 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque wasn’t coming to America. At the time it was said to be the most powerful production three-banger in the world, but Toyota’s Gazoo Racing has significantly upped the ante to an even 300 hp and 273 pound-feet for the just-announced Toyota GR Corolla that is absolutely coming to our shores later this year.

This more powerful version of the engine shares the same basic specifications. It’s a DOHC 12-valve inline-three that displaces 1618 cubic centimeters, and it shares the same D-4S direct and port fuel-injection system and 10.5:1 compression ratio. Its single-scroll ball-bearing turbo is integrated into the exhaust manifold itself, but in the larger GR Corolla the spent combustion gasses pass into a much freer-breathing triple-exit exhaust system that features a valve to control the flow out of an added new central exit to greatly reduce backpressure. Peak torque arrives at 3000 rpm, and its plateau persists to 5500 revs, at which point the 6500-rpm power peak is not far away.
The only available transmission is a six-speed manual, and it seems safe to assume it’ll deliver the same smooth short-throw shift-action we experienced during a drive of the Europe-only GR Yaris. All of the internal cogs in the close-ratio box are the same as the Yaris’s, including a top gear that’s barely overdriven at 0.90:1. Toyota refers to this gearbox as an intelligent manual transmission (iMT) because it includes a rev-matching feature, as well as hill holding to prevent rollback on steep inclines. The shift lever itself is positioned to be within easy reach of the driver, but we can’t help noticing the prominence of the chunky center-pull handbrake. The standard GR-FOUR all-wheel-drive system employs an electronically controlled clutch pack mounted to the nose of the rear differential to distribute torque, but unlike the demand-based systems found on most crossover SUVs, the GR Corolla’s system drives all four wheels all the time. It’s not a matter of if, but how much, as the system allows the driver to twirl a knob to select the front/rear torque split that’s best suited to conditions or mood. The everyday default is a 60/40 split, and there’s a rear-drive-heavy 30/70 setting that’s meant to up the entertainment factor on winding roads. The 50/50 setting is all about track driving, where too much tail-happiness can negatively affect lap times. But these torque splits are not carved in stone, as the system is able to tweak the distribution based on real-time feedback of how the car is actually behaving in response to changing driver inputs.The Circuit Edition comes standard with Torsen limited-slip front and rear differentials, but they can also be added to the Core grade by opting for the Performance package. In either case, the power generated by the diminutive three-cylinder turbo is ultimately pasted to the pavement through 235/40R-18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires mounted on 15-spoke cast-aluminum wheels. Toyota hasn’t made any acceleration claims, but we suspect that all-wheel-drive traction combined with a redline clutch dump and a pounds-per-horsepower ratio of just 10.8:1 could amount to a sub-five-second zero-to-60-mph time.
All of the above seems insane in the context of a Toyota Corolla, but the GR Corolla looks set to more than make up for the fact that the GR Yaris was never sent to these shores. It’s abundantly clear that the rallymeisters within Gazoo Racing have had a lot of say during the development of the 2023 GR Corolla, and we’re absolutely here for it.
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