Thursday 16th April

1,000hp GR Corolla drift car just what UK needs

Remember the team behind the Navara-R? Now they have a new project to work on

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The Toyota GR Corolla feels like the ultimate forbidden fruit. With so few hot hatches on sale, the prospect of a Golf-sized five-door with 300hp and a six-speed manual sounds fantastic. Those of us enamoured with the smaller Yaris would love a larger, more practical taste of the GR magic. The Corollas are even being made here now, yet shipped all over the world rather than being sold in the UK, which feels really mean. Yes, they can be imported, but that isn’t quite the same. 

Here’s one more reminder of how good a GR Corolla looks over here on UK numberplates. Ideal, right? Only don’t get used to it, as this is a donor car for a drift project. It’s been supplied by JDM Garage, and will form the basis of SB Motorsports new drift car. You might remember the name from their wild Navara-R project of a few years ago; they certainly don’t do things by halves, even with a project as ‘normal’ as a drift build rather than a thousand-horsepower pick up… 

As is so often the way with drift machines, there won’t be very much GR Corolla left when the SB team is done. The G16E-GTS will be ditched, of course, replaced by 2JZ - what else? The 3.0-litre straight-six turbo will be outputting a four-digit figure when DY Engine Services are finished with it, which ought to be pretty spectacular. Power will reach the rear rubber (bye-bye GR-Four) via a Quaife six-speed sequential gearbox. 

In truth, the shorter list is probably what won’t change in creating a GR Corolla drift car rather than what will, but given the renders released so far, it’s going to remain recognisable as a Toyota hatchback. And that’s quite cool. Modifications will include three-way adjustable coilovers from ST suspension (complete with tarmac-scraping ride height), custom forged wheels from Strom, a widebody kit to house it all and ‘so much more’. Even among the Goodwood Festival of Speed crowds (where the SB Corolla is set to make its public debut), there’ll be no missing this. Just look for the clouds of smoke…

Company founder Steve Biagioni “I’m beyond excited with this project, the Corolla is steeped in Toyota’s history and with the help of our partners, we’re able to take on the latest model and take it to the next level. Our team here at SB Motorsport are going full throttle with this build and I can’t wait to show you the finished article.”

Expect regular YouTube updates between now and the summer, along with increased hankering for a GR Corolla of your own. Even without 1,000hp, they do look pretty great… 

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• Road-legal Nissan Navara-R gets 1,000hp
• Update time for ‘more intense’ GR Corolla

[ChrisCh86]

Wouldn't it be better to use a standard Corolla as the base car, given the extensive re engineering that they're doing to it?

Seems like a waste of a GR Corolla to me, as most of it will go in the bin.

[new666uk]

I thought very much the same. They could just go full NASCAR and make their own frame with a lightweight Corolla fibeglass shell as what they are planning bears little resemblance to an actual Corolla anyway.

[RandomCarChat]

Weirdly its been quite a popular chassis with Formula D in the USA, excited to see what happens with this one.

[HighSidedMedia]

Echoing others - seems like a real shame to hack up a GR Corolla rather than just using a base model car... Will be interesting to see the final outcome though - looking forward to seeing the build progress.

[GreatScott2016]

Would be lovely to see the GR Corolla officially here, I’ve always struggled with the looks of the GRY, but the Corolla on the other hand looks great to me

[Yahonza]

So they haven't built it yet. Okay then get on with it.
It is an anodyne thing the Corolla, even the GR Corolla, unlike it's little brother - which can already do the drift thing should you need to do that.

[georgeyboy12345]

Silly

[Jon_S_Rally]

Yahonza said:

So they haven't built it yet. Okay then get on with it.
It is an anodyne thing the Corolla, even the GR Corolla, unlike it's little brother - which can already do the drift thing should you need to do that.

They are getting on with it. The car is already stripped I believe. To turn it around between now and Goodwood will be pretty good going.

They have to start making announcements ahead of time because that's how PR works.

[Tiglon]

I still just can't get over the third exhaust tail pipe, in the centre. It's like nails down a blackboard to me.

[nismo48]

HighSidedMedia said:

Echoing others - seems like a real shame to hack up a GR Corolla rather than just using a base model car... Will be interesting to see the final outcome though - looking forward to seeing the build progress.

Agreed

[GTEYE]

I’d not realised the GR Corolla definitely wasn’t going on sale in the UK, the previous article from 2025 suggested it might - now it seems definitely not. When did that change?

[seabod91]

The reason why they use the gr and not a base model is because of the floor pan difference due to the awd. Not sure on rules but years ago I’m sure standard floor and firewall had to be in place in most comps. That’s my guess anyway.

[blearyeyedboy]

GTEYE said:

I d not realised the GR Corolla definitely wasn t going on sale in the UK, the previous article from 2025 suggested it might - now it seems definitely not. When did that change?

I think that was press hyperbole rather than Toyota announcing anything. Building it in the UK is quite different from failing to meet emissions targets in UK sales. Even when interesting cars' emissions are offset by Priuses, they need EV sales to avoid fines- hybrids count for nothing in that framework of BEV targets and who gets fined.

Sad as it is, successful petrol models are financial suicide for manufacturers right now.

Edited by blearyeyedboy on Sunday 19th April 23:57