Corolla hot hatch confirmed? Toyota releases cryptic GR teaser

One of the most discussed and anticipated bits of news in the hot hatch world is the launch of a Toyota GR Corolla of some form. Rumours of a fully blown GR Corolla have been in the works for years now, and it seems finally Toyota is ready to confirm it to the world.

The Japanese firm’s American arm released a cryptic teaser on social media in October showing the interior of a Corolla with the caption “Keep them guessing…” 

At first glance, it’s a fairly banal picture. The left-hook cabin looks like any other Corolla’s cabin, there’s a few Instagram-appropriate hipster youths walking in the background. All seems to be perfectly normal. 

But, Toyota sleuths recently started picking apart the image and its little details, and it seems that they’re onto something. 

For starters, the road the car is parked near is labelled ‘GR Four’, and the code ‘G16’ appears in the cluster behind the steering wheel. The former is reference to the four-wheel drive system in the GR Yaris, and the latter is part of the engine code of the G16E-GTS 1.6-litre turbocharged triple in the GR Yaris. 

It’s long been suspected that, should a GR Corolla materialise, it would borrow from its smaller GR Yaris cousin. And, there’s more details in the picture, too. 

The climate control’s display shows the numbers ‘2’ and ‘68’. It just so happens that the GR Yaris produces 268hp in its home market. 

The most telling easter egg in the image, though, is the presence of a teeny tiny car off in the distance on the right of frame. It’s hard to spot, but the car is clearly a Corolla hatch covered in camouflage. It’s thought that this tiny little arrangement of pixels is the first official image of the GR Corolla. 

Each of these little hints align with what the rumour mill has been suggesting about the new ‘Rolla. It’s speculated that the model is likely to be unveiled in full in 2022, exclusively with a manual transmission and a wider track. It’s also been reported that the model is likely to get more power than the GR Yaris’ 268hp (200kW).