Photo: Toyota At the GR Yaris premiere on January 10, 2020, Toyota called it "a homologation model born to win" the World Rally Championship, developed with Tommi Mäkinen Racing, and noted that WRC homologation required 25,000 road cars in 12 consecutive months, per Toyota's premiere release. Americans never got that car. They got the GR Corolla instead. Here is what the two share, where they split, and which one you can buy.

Three cylinders, no apologies

The G16E-GTS is a 1,618 cc turbocharged three with twin overhead cams. In 2020 Japan-spec form it made 200 kW (272 PS) and 370 Nm, which Toyota called the highest output of any three-cylinder in the world at the time, and it was assembled on a dedicated line at the Motomachi plant. The shell got an aluminum hood, doors and hatch and a carbon-fiber roof, and a High-performance First Edition weighed 1,280 kg,.

Under the skin it is a hybrid of platforms. describes the regular Yaris's GA-B structure up front and the larger GA-C architecture at the rear, in a body 90 mm lower and 55 mm wider than a standard Yaris.

The GR Corolla arrived for 2023 with the same engine tuned to 300 hp at 6,500 rpm and 273 lb-ft from 3,000 to 5,500 rpm, with a six-speed manual only, per Toyota's US launch release.

GR-Four and the dial

GR-Four uses an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch to vary drive between the axles, with Torsen limited-slip differentials front and rear on the sharper versions, per Toyota. The original GR Yaris offered Normal at 60:40 front to rear, Sport at 30:70 and Track at 50:50,, and the 2023 GR Corolla used the same splits.

The second-generation GR Yaris,, swapped Sport for a 53:47 Gravel mode and made Track variable between 60:40 and 30:70. The 2025 GR Corolla followed with Gravel at 50:50, the same Normal and Track logic, and Torsens as standard, per Toyota's 2025 release.

Special editions rewrite the dial. The GR Yaris MORIZO RR replaces Gravel with a Morizo mode set at 50:50, according to Toyota Gazoo Racing. The Sébastien Ogier edition swaps Track for a 40:60 "Seb" mode,.

Built for a rulebook it never raced under

The homologation plan unraveled fast. Toyota was testing a GR Yaris-based WRC car by February 2020, lost testing time to the FIA's pandemic ban and scrapped it that June, keeping its existing Yaris WRC for 2021 and folding the work into its 2022 car,.

The 2022 car, the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID, debuted at Monte-Carlo on a dedicated spaceframe chassis with the Yaris WRC's 1.6-liter turbo and a 100 kW hybrid unit, per Toyota's rally team. A customer GR Yaris Rally2 was homologated from January 1, 2024, after more than 15,000 competition kilometers,.

Competition still shaped the road car. Toyota's development slogan for the evolved version was "Thanks for breaking it," aimed at drivers who pushed it to its limits, per its 2024 release.

Why America got the Corolla

In 2020 Toyota told The Drive it had "no plans to bring the GR Yaris" to the US, and a spokesperson cited "federalization compliance" to Japanese Nostalgic Car. Toyota sales chief Bob Carter later told MotorTrend that North America has "the harshest crash tests in the world," so the car was not homologated here, while 300 cars allocated to Mexico sold out in under 24 hours,.

The answer was a Corolla built at the GR Factory inside the Motomachi plant, which Toyota called the first Gazoo Racing model wholly developed and manufactured for North America. It started at $35,900 for 2023. The 25-year exemption in federal law is no shortcut: the first GR Yaris builds date from 2020, so that route stays closed until 2045.

The updates, market by market

The evolved GR Yaris premiered at Tokyo Auto Salon on January 12, 2024. In Europe, Toyota rates it at 280 hp at 6,500 rpm and 390 Nm from 3,250 to 4,600 rpm, up 20 hp and 30 Nm, with 13 percent more spot welds, 24 percent more structural adhesive and a driver's seat mounted 25 mm lower, per Toyota UK., reviewing the UK car, says later examples dropped to 254 lb ft of peak torque under stricter emissions rules.

In Japan, Toyota's 2025 update release lists 224 kW (304 PS) and 400 Nm, priced from 3.56 million yen for a manual RC to 5.33 million yen for an RZ High performance automatic.

That automatic is the eight-speed GAZOO Racing Direct Automatic Transmission, or GR-DAT. says it reads throttle and brake inputs to anticipate shifts, beat the manual's lap times in Toyota's track testing and comes with a fluid cooler.

The GR Corolla's timeline runs differently:

  • 2023 MORIZO Edition: 200 numbered US cars with 295 lb-ft, no rear seats, closer gear ratios, shorter final drive and an estimated 3,186-lb curb weight, per Toyota's Morizo release.
  • 2025: every GR Corolla got 295 lb-ft and an optional eight-speed automatic with launch control, per Toyota.
  • 2026: 45.6 feet of additional structural adhesive and a secondary air intake duct, per Toyota's 2026 release.
  • GRMN Corolla: a two-seat manual with carbon hood, fenders and wing and 415 Nm in Japan-spec, 15 Nm over the standard car, aimed mainly at Japan, North America and Australia, per Toyota's GRMN release. lists US pricing from $64,360, preliminary figures of 300 hp and 302 lb-ft, and 730 cars worldwide.

The GR Yaris specials stay overseas. The GR-DAT-equipped MORIZO RR is limited to 100 cars for Japan and 100 for Europe, and the 200-car Ogier edition is not coming to the US either.

The one you can buy

For 2026, Toyota lists the GR Corolla from $39,920 with the manual to $47,965 for a Premium Plus automatic, before a $1,195 processing and handling fee. That buys the rally-bred hatch's engine family and all-wheel-drive hardware, with a near-identical mode dial, in a car Toyota developed for this market.