Is the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Circuit Edition the BEST new performance car to BUY?

hey guys what's up it's your R from R's rides we are here in a special Scenic filming location we got to watch out for the Florida Gators in that little Pond area behind us but you know what another thing you got to watch out for is the performance of this vehicle what is this this a 2023 Toyota gr Corolla but before we get into this all-wheel drive hot hatch let's talk about what's going on here Toyota is really pushing this performance image you know after a few years of things kind of getting Bland they really have not only redesigned their traditional lineup of vehicles but they have created this gr Performance Brand and it's all about gazu racing gazu racing is the Japanese arm of Toyota that does all of their Motorsports so what are you going to see you're going to see cars like the prototypes in the hypercar class at Lama you're going to see the G r yarus on the rally stages around the world in that World Rally Championship and a bunch of sports car racing all in between now what's interesting is that they started with the Supra putting that badge on calling it The gr Supra they have the gr86 and slotting somewhere in between is going to be this gr Corolla now I know a lot of people have said Joe it's just a Corolla why what's the big deal but what I want to show you with this review is is what are the standout touches of the gr Corolla so let's go ahead let's dive in and find out is it the best new performance car that you should be buying for the money let's go ahead let's dive in and find out right off the bat the color I absolutely love this metallic gray fits it to a te makes it show the body lines without being too over the top now at the front of the business one of the things you're going to get right off the bat is different Bodywork so we have have a wider front end which starts with the fenders and the front fascia unique to the gr Corolla this gives it that extra aggressive look but what it's actually doing is is pushing the wheels and tires far out as possible to give you better grip on the racetracks and even if you're going to do a little rallying with this vehicle now you'll notice that we'll have our standard setup on headlights just like a regular Corolla LED daytime running lamps turn singals and LED headlights working your way down we do have a zon there's a large gloss black area of plastic I feel like they should have made this a functional air curtain or even maybe took the turn signals and brought them down into that lower corner just to make it functional but what I do like is how they extended the front fascia to incorporate the splitter a lot of Brands will stick appendages all over the place this is a nice Sleek integrated appearance that really gives it not only the functionality but that aggressive look now the good news is you do get those rally inspired fog lamps round LED fog lamps which seem to be disappearing on a lot of the competition in this particular classes vehicle now as we come across the front grill you could see that width that I was telling you about and just the difference between a standard Corolla now on this gr Cora this is a circuit Edition you're going to get Gloss black massive opening of a center Grill because we do have a turbocharged intercooled engine there's that splitter that comes all the way across and then no gr Corolla is complete without its actual gr badge and like I said if you follow any type of Motorsports you'll see gr on those Vehicles now as we work our way up I like the way they place the Toyota badge because what they did was they flanked it with two more openings to bring extra cool air for that turbocharged power plant now as we rise up you don't get a standard Toyota Corolla Hood what do you get you get a hood with a bulge so guys put the socks away you don't need them you're getting your nice 2-in rise of a bulge specific to the Circuit Edition and you'll also notice we do have gloss black functional heat extractors because remember we're trying to get cool air in hot air out because hot air robs us of performance and that's another thing you got to think about is that you have this light aluminum Hood you have them thinking about performance more so than on your standard Corolla now as we come around the bend of course we're going to have something unique for you Wheel and Tire setups so you're going to get this multi-spoke Forge wheel specific to the Circuit Edition gloss black and then one thing you'll notice lurking behind are the Brembo calipers bright red with the gr badging and then look at those rotors over 14 in in diameter two-piece and slotted let's talk about this for a second if you were to add performance brakes to your own vehicle it would literally cost thousands of dollars that's part of the package with the gr coroll it's not just about something different underneath the hood it's not even about a different Hood it's about performance the complete package so with this extra braking capability that's going to allow you to turn those fast laps lap after lap and always have a nice brake pedal nothing that's going to fade and just go to the floor cuz that's not a good feeling you're going into a tight hair pin you get on the brakes and that brake pedal goes to the floor you better do yourself a little bit of a Hail Mary cuz that's not going to end up good you're not going to have to worry about that with this kind of brake package this is a 18-in wheel like I said forged aluminum so it's lighter than cast we do have Michelin Pilot those four tires really Pilot Sport bring in the performance bring in the durability 235 on the width and a 40 series sidewall and then of course they did the suspension specific to the gr Corolla added extra welds to the chassis and extra adhesive over 80 ft of structural adhesive has been put underneath the sheet metal of this vehicle to make it a nice rigid structure now as we come down the side you do have gloss black on the mirror caps to match the other gloss black bits turn single slim and trim up top is another area where they brought performance carbon fiber roof forged carbon fiber sheds about almost 10 lb of weight off the top of the vehicle why is this a performance thing think about it we want to lower our center of gravity so by putting a lighter roof this is lighter than obviously aluminum you're going to lower your Center gravity Plus what's great about carbon fiber roofs is that they they actually stiffen the structure not weaken the structure so you're actually going to get even more rigid structure to really be able to feel that balance when you're turning the wheel now one of the things I also like and I'm going to have Lori swing around is with that flared out Fender you do have functional Fender vents on the back of the fender gloss black with the gr badge so we're going to take that air and bring it down the side of the vehicle they have that amazing s skirt extension and the GR4 badge now this badge on the bottom here has a lot of racing history going back to the Celica gr4s that Carlos sints won the World Rally Championship with all the way back in the 1990s but I love that nice aggressive look and obviously unique to the gr Corolla you do have color match door handles and then just like up front we have a flared Fender now this Fender is obviously stuck onto the the door panel it starts on the door panel and then comes into the rear but it gives you that extra width to get those wheels and tires as far apart as possible they did go all in on the brakes so even on the rear you have slotted rotors and those Brembo calipers they didn't go cheap on the rear brakes one of the things I want to focus on since we're looking at the side of the vehicle is the GR4 so this is all-wheel drive not front-wheel drive like your grandma's Corolla what that means is is that you have power going from the front to the rear now what's cool about the gr Corolla especially the circuit Edition is you could do a 3070 split where you have 30% of the power up front 70% coming to the rear that's going to almost make it behave like a rear wheel drive hot hatch you could do a 5050 or you could do a 6040 so if you're just driving around town you're taking it easy 60% of the power up front 40% of the power to the the rear if you want to let it hang out and maybe do some Ken Block you want to pay a tribute and you got your Instagram handle already and you want to do some Ken Block drifting you could do 3070 or if you're at the track you could do 50/50 it's all controlled by a knob and I'll show you that when we get to the interior now as we work towards the rear what I love about the circuit Edition is they put this beautiful WRC inspired rear spoiler fully functional gloss black like I said to match the other gloss black bits you can see the forge the difference between the forge carbon fiber and that gloss black rear wing you are going to get of course your standard tail lights on the back I am going to uh give them a thumbs up because they did LED lighting which is great and then you'll notice just like up front look at our flared rear fender look how far that comes out nice aggressive look and then coming towards the rear very unique rear hatch area and you'll see it doesn't have the most space but it definitely looks pretty cool at the tail in the business there's our gr Corolla badge and then the cherry on top of all this is not only this lower bumper area with the diffuser but with our triple Outlet exhaust unique to the gr Corolla so you have an oval cut on each side and then you have this massive horizontal oval Center exhaust plus you even have functionality in the back bumper area so it's nice to see them work the front of the car the middle of the car and the rear of the car and that's the things on the outside that go towards this being a true performance vehicle why don't we go ahead let's pop the hood and see one of the other big pieces of what makes a gr Corolla a gr Corolla all right guys we got that bulging hood open underneath the hood I know a lot of people are still surprised to this day what they're going to hear but wait until you hear the performance first of all love the engine cover you got the gr badge the word turbo makes you know that there's something good happening and even the red touches that they did it's a very tasteful engine cover something that I would have no issue opening with at Cars and Coffee but underneath the hood you're looking at not a 4cylinder turbo like a lot of the competition in this class you're looking at a 1.6 L turbocharged inline three it produces 300 horsepower 273 pbet of torque the great news that I love one transmission and one transmission only slick shifting six-speed manual 0 to 60 if you know how to dance like Tinkerbell on your toes 0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds quarter m is going to go by at 13.3 seconds at 106 mph top speed is governed to 143 mph so a little bummed about that I'm surprised they did that MPGs 21 the city 28 on the highway and the vehicle weighs 3,269 lb so let's talk about this for a second you have this unique engine that's unique to the gr Corolla just like over in Europe and other markets in Japan they have the gr yurus this being a three cylinder turbocharged engine 100 horsepower per liter and if you think that Toyota's going to build something that is probably going to blow up after 10,000 miles you might be surprised cuz like I said over in Europe and Japan the gr yarus has been doing the business for quite some time now and of course Toyota has won the World Rally Championship with their GRS WRC card but why don't we go ahead let's fire this up and see it [Music] go [Music] all right guys we are inside this 2023 Toyota gr Corolla circuit Edition now what's great about the gr Corolla is is that you for 2023 could get it three different ways core which is your entry model circuit Edition which is what we're in and then the top performance trim is known as the marizo that one they're only producing for 2023 so as we go into 2024 no more marizo you'll just have core and this circuit Edition now if you're wondering well Joe I'm looking performance for performance vehicle I need something that's versatile how much is this MSRP is $44,000 exactly how you see it the only option is is for the heavy metal paint it's $495 other than that it comes exactly as you see it and you might be saying to yourself well Joe that seems like a lot of money well guess what look around because new car prices nothing is cheap anymore but let's see what you get when you go gr Corolla to the door panels now most of the door panel is stock Corolla the good news is they bring some red stitching which I really like and I like the way everything is soft touch the one thing I have to zon that's just sticking out like a big Boomerang is that gloss black on the door handle so you can see how the gloss black very Boomerang shape it it's not needed you touch it you're going to get fingerprints all over it I wish they just would have made it something else door pocket is a decent size you could actually get four Hot Pockets in your hot hatch and a nice Mountain Dew to wash it all down going from the door panel to the dash soft touch material the zon is where's my red stitching why do I get red stitching on the door and not here on the dash but the good news is you do get a JBL sound system and as you come in you're going to get that standard 8 in infotainment system now the good news is is that it does have the new multimedia system where you could set up your different driver profiles and all that good stuff the bad news is is that it is only 8 in and if you don't like the floating iPad style you're not going to love this I wish they would have had some kind of performance data loger so something that's like in the type R maybe even something similar to the performance data recorder in the Corvette and the Camaro that you can option in now I'll throw it in reverse backup camera does take up all8 Ines pretty much and it is a decent clear resolution and you do have your trajectory lines AC vents Blended in AC controls are easy peasy you just have your blower fan temperature and then how you want to make your different adjustments you do get a nice gr start stop button that your finger gets to press every time you fire this thing up wireless charging two stages of heated seats no ventilated seats red stitching here which is good you do have your drive modes I'll show you that when you come to the business end and you could easily shut the traction control off this though is where the magic happens first of all when you go circuit Edition you're getting the marizo name that is the nickname for AIO Toyota whenever he races himself that's his alter personality so nobody knows who he is gr badging and I love the leather nice crisp short throws not as short as a Civic Type R but still very crisp and this is performance this is not the manual transmission that they used to have in the standard Corolla do like the red stitching and then remember how I was telling you about the all whee drive this is how you make those adjustments you just push the center and that's going to put you right into track mode for that 50/50 distribution you do get a beefy Ken Block approved mechanical e bra with the red stitching two cup holders no Center armrests but you do have hidden here a USBC and a 12vt and then the seats they look like something out of a freaking race car the gr badging the red stitching love the silver the Alcantara nice bolstering manual adjustments for the passenger manual adjustments for the driver I'm okay with that with the performance esque inspired of this hot hatch but why don't you come over to the business end I have a g Corolla specific steering wheel I want to introduce you to come on over all right guys business time behind the wheel now one thing I do like is that all these gr Corollas are limited and you could see this is one of just, 1500 the problem I have is why would they put this beautiful plaque where nobody's going to see it except for you when you open up the door so that to me is a zon put this inside on the dash somewhere center console or Dash the good news though is is that we have that WC pedal box brake pedal throttle and clutch all aluminum and guess what you could easily do your own heel toe downshifting very easily now if you don't know how to heel toe downshift they do have the IMT button what does that stand for intelligent manual transmission that's where it'll automatically blip it for you heated steering wheel your rear wiper of course and that's the other trip stuff that's not really important for performance what is cool though are these seats they are manual adjustment I'm not really going to zon that because like I said once you set it you could forget it and it's easily set up so just like Ron papel and his little oven these seats are the same way I'm 6 feet tall and I'm swimming in space in here easily get my helmet on at a track event an autocross event and still have plenty of room and then the steering wheel the leather the red stitching the gr badge with the gray finish this is specific to the gr Corolla it is a manual tilting and telescoping wheel and then you have a unique digital gauge cluster large gear indicator in the center I love the TAC look at the way the TAC lights up let me get rid of this little warning thing yes I know it's going to change and then just like I showed you if you look in the lower right hand corner there here's where we can make our adjustments 3070 and then I press the center button for track and I like the way it displays it and then on top of that you got your different modes sport custom normal and Eco those are your options the thing is it that it doesn't change the dash the dash stays the same you could change the configuration of those little boxes like what's displayed I got the G meter and I like having that nice large gear indicator but you know what we don't have a two-door performance car we have four doors let's get into the back seat and see how your passenger is going to enjoy hauling butt with you in the gr Corolla all right guys here we are back seat time in this hot hatch now just like I mentioned before about the Interior Space not being as spacious as the competition up front same thing in the rear seat it is the tightest out of the competition but you still have usable room it's not like I'm sitting in the backseat of a Mustang plenty of head room 6 feet tall seats are comfortable the supportive and I like the way you have the nice material all the way around large Pockets so when you're going to the racetrack you could bring your piping hot Tostinos pizza rolls and I don't know if you've ever had a pizza roll especially when you take it out of the microwave and you bite into it and it squirts this blazing hot oil in your mouth from inside the pizza roll ah I'm I'm having a little bit of PTSD right now but you can easily put three bags of pizza rolls back here there's no center console no rear AC but I do like the way you have your connectivity like I showed you my only thing is I wish the 12vt was up there because I'm telling you now you're going to want to run a radar detector and you do have a USBC up front as well so this USBC technically is for the rear seat passenger I have my own pocket here for my own pizza rolls maybe some Bagel bikes nice and hot and then like I said seats are comfy you do actually get an armrest charm and soft two cup holders but why we go ahead let's get under the rear hatch because I want to see how hot of a hatch this is when we go on throttle all right guys time to get underneath the rear hatch area now it is manual lift I'm okay with that I don't need electric motors and extra weight added to this the one thing to realize is that out of the hot hatches like the uh Honda Type R the Civic Type R the Golf R from Volkswagen this actually has the smallest amount of room but it's still going to be better than what you would find on a small sports car when it comes to Cargo space so with the rear seats up you're looking at 18 cubic feet of space now part of the challenge is is that where the differential is for the rear end that's what makes this cargo area very high and not very spacious you do have Nooks on both sides for your track day twinkies and obviously you want to save some for you but also for the competition that you're going to surprise and blow their doors off now the good news is if you are going to do a track day it's very easy to get even more room than the 18 cubic feet of space what you're going to do is you're going to reach in here and then you have a 60/40 split on the rear seats and what I love about it is that they're nice and flat so flat that lauia actually took a measure and a weight balance and measured it out and a scale and was able to find out that it is totally horizontal now the good news about this is is think about when you go do your track day maybe you got a separate set of wheels maybe some rais Forge wheels something like that with some stickier tires than what this comes with you could slap those on have a jack have an air compressor a cooler for the drinks that's what makes these cars so much fun is that they're so usable but yet they have the performance but why don't we go ahead I'm going to seal this hatch up because you know what if you're ready I'm ready I got the keys we got a manual transmission let's go on throttle on this gr Corolla all right guys we're inside this 2023 gr Corolla circuit Edition what I'm going to do is for the street I have it in sport mode I have traction control turned off which puts it in expert mode and then I have the all-wheel drive set up for 30% going to the front 70% going to the rear it just easily makes sense and that's what I love about the gr Cora when you get in it easily makes sense exactly what is being displayed how to display it if you want the automatic red match downshift on or off you don't have to go through special menus or anything like that but if you're ready I'm definitely ready first gear here we go a yeah that all well drive hooks right [Music] up nice good feedback through the steering [Music] wheel and that really is showing with that slick shifting six-speed man look at this she is hooked up all the way up to 7,000 RPM on those brakes woo yeah nicely buttoned up man all right so let's talk about what's going on here I love the massive Center tack the large super siiz gear indicator right smack dab in the center I would prefer to be able to have a few more other gauges displayed uh things like diff temp um overall you know oil temp oil pressure all those really important readouts one thing to remember is that when you go circuit it automatically comes with the limited slip diff up front limited slip diff out back the suspension is so well tuned you're not getting any kind of body roll whatsoever and I really like when you have it to that 3070 split you could really feel that extra power going to the rear so that when you come out of a corner it just you feel that momentum and where it's coming from brakes are fantastic now there are some people that have done some track days and have had the diffs get too hot and I know that is something that uh Toyota with gr uh has work through for 2024 so you might want to hold off for a 2024 model year vehicle but seats hold you in they Nestle you perfect and the height of the of the shift lever it really just makes you have great visibility out the front and allows you to really hit your marks perfectly you get to see those heat extractors peeking from the top of the hood and you're you're getting a pleasant sound on the interior a three cylinder has such a unique sound to it and I can't wait to hear some gr Corollas with modified exhaust because that's the one thing I remember when I used to ride motorcycles and when uh Triumph you know came out with their triple uh three cylinder sport bike and and uh you know Naked Bike they really have such a unique unque sound to it clutch modulation is really really good it's not like an onoff switch like it is on the Ford Focus RS um and if you're new to driving a manual transmission I think you will appreciate how this is uh communicating to you but if you're ready I'm ready I got some more twisty bits let's do it sounds good oh throttle yeah love it [Music] third [Music] gear the grip the grip decreasing radius [Music] corner woohooo all the way out to Red Line 7,000 RPM I tell you this car is one hell of a hot hatch and if you think it's just a Corolla with some badges in a wing you are greatly mistaken the steering is so precise communicates so well and just the balance of the car it it it makes you feel Invincible which is a pretty damn good feeling to have especially if you're doing a track day all right guys one more time for you definitely one more time for me I'm going to leave it in track 50/50 distribution I think whether you go track or you go 3070 is the way to go are you ready AR thr yeah I tell you the grip it's like Gorilla Glue all over the freaking tires on the [Music] brakes [Music] woooo look at this look at the balance just hunkers down I'm telling you that 3 cylinder turbocharged engine is defin definitely doing the business performance-wise 300 horsepower and the fact that it's 100 horsepower per liter I mean that just to me is mindboggling but uh I hope that this has been a very telling review on what the capabilities of this car is about we're going to get back and wrap this one up so I will see you in a hot hatch second all right guys it's been one of those days that boy oh boy I'm so glad the manual transmission still exists we definitely got to thank everybody at Toyota USA for getting us access to this gr Corolla circuit Edition let me know in the comment section when it comes for buck for buck penny for Penny Cent for Cent is this the best new performance car to go with over not only the competition or when you look at spending more money on other types of performance cars let me know down in that comment section but if you're new to the channel and you're on your way out hit that subscribe button I promise you it's worthwhile come back for more if you are a subscriber thank you for supporting us here on R's rides of course we can't do it without LG R working that camera like a champ she's got her big blue floppy hat on and she's making the magic happen behind the lens thank you Lori for all that you do and just like always guys I'll see you on the next ride

Channel: Raiti's Rides

Views: 80,764

Keywords: car, cars, tire, tires, truck, trucks, suv, suvs, burnout, smoke, drag strip, drag race, race track, drag, strip, race, track, toyota, rav4, hybrid, awd, xse, ford, mustang, gt, cars and coffee, coffee and cars, crowd, kill, crash, crush, flip, spin, fuel, fire, burn, oil, gas, street race, street outlaws, cop, cops, police, arrest, arrested, jail, prison, ticket, ticketed, steal, stole, stolen, subaru, wrx, sti, wrx sti, mitsubishi, evo, corvette, zr1, honda, accord, c8, supra, tacoma, camry, prime, plug-in, corolla, prius, CR-V, Tucson Hybrid

Id: J1GBVUw2AXk

Length: 31min 20sec (1880 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023