Toyota GR Corolla Gets Some Superbly Geeky New Tweaks

While we eagerly await the increasingly likely arrival of the Toyota GR Corolla in the European market, the car’s just been treated to a light refresh in its home market of Japan – and my word, are we talking about some properly nerdy stuff here.

Toyota says the changes have been informed by running the GR Corolla in Japan’s Super Taikyu race series, and are aimed at better withstanding G-forces and prolonged high-load engine use.

To that end, there are now 13.9 extra metres of structural adhesive in the car’s body. We warned you this was seriously geeky. This, apparently, has “enhanced body rigidity while minimising weight increase,” and is aimed at upping the performance on circuits outside of Japan, which apparently generate more lateral and vertical G-forces than those in the country. We had no idea Japan had weaker gravity than the rest of the world, but there you go.

Elsewhere, the secondary intake duct now has an additional cool air duct within it that’s activated at high engine speeds. Yes, a new duct inside an existing duct that isn’t even the main duct for the job it does. This, says Toyota, helps keep engine output stable even under prolonged high-temperature use.

Next, the optional high-end JBL sound system now has a subwoofer in the luggage compartment. This may sound more like something designed to enhance the GR Corolla’s appeal in a Halfords car park rather than on a track, but it also adds in Active Sound Control, basically piping in extra engine noise, including a rally-ish anti-lag effect when lifting off the throttle.

Finally, owners of earlier GR Corollas will soon be able to get a dealer-fit upgrade that brings their car’s software in line with changes made to the model in Japan last year. That means an uplift in torque from the 1.6-litre turbo three-cylinder from 273 to 295lb ft, and tweaks to the GR-Four AWD system’s torque distribution in various drive modes.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the more hardcore GR Corolla that was teased back in April, then seemingly leaked last week. That one, which we’re expecting to be called the GRMN, is wearing plenty more aggressive touches, but it surely can’t be long until it gets a reveal of its own.

This fettled GR Corolla goes on sale in Japan in November, with pricing starting at ¥5.68 million (around £28,250) for the six-speed manual car, and ¥5.98 million (around £29,750) for the eight-speed automatic. Hopefully, when the car likely arrives in Europe next year to coincide with the opening of a new production line at Toyota’s UK plant, it’ll benefit from these upgrades too – we don’t know how we’d cope if our GR Corolla had 13.9 fewer metres of structural body adhesive than Japan’s.