At a glance, the 2023 Corolla GR Yaris is a machine that Toyota launched on the last day of the previous month. We know the hatchback is coming to the US, but there’s no MSRP or official delivery start date yet, so we can’t even mention aftermarket bits. Or can we? Fortunately, the answer is a big, fat yesโlast weekend’s inaugural 2022 Formula Drift stage was won by a GR Corolla race car whose widebody has already captured our attention and may be offered to the general public further down the line.
We’ve already covered the Formula Drift GR Corolla, a monster built by Stephan Papadakis and manhandled by Ryan Tuerck (as stated above, the latter is now smiling from the top of the rankings).
However, that story focused on the 1,000 HP, RWD tech side of the motorsport tool. For today, though, we want to focus on the widebody kit of the hot hatch. This was designed by digital artist Jon Sibal (aka Jonsibal on social media), who also created the first wb package for the not-on-the-street-yet 2023 Nissan Z Formula Drift car, as well as the livery of the competition’s Mk V Supra-powered Toyota GR86.
Dealers already have generous waiting lists for the production car
Rumors about the 300 HP, AWD, manual gearbox GR Corolla have been around since last year. Unlike, the smaller GR Yaris whose 1.6L turbo-three it uses, the newcomer is also being offered in America. So, many enthusiasts started talking to dealers (more on this below), with some of them being interested in customizing the compact performer. Naturally, many of these folks are wondering if the Formula Drift kit is coming to the street.
So far, there’s been no word on this (we reached out to Jon Sibal and will update this story if he delivers an answer). But the fact the artist has now returned to the matter to portray a street car featuring his aero work might be a clue.
You can find the fresh 3D work in the gallery below, with this appearing almost identical to the one present on the race car. The only difference we can spot involves the vented rear quarter panels of the FD machine, which are probably there to let the air escape from the fenders at high speed.
Speaking of which, the package includes the front fender replacement, side skirts, rear door add-ons, and rear quarter panel. And, in the case of the race car, this was built by California-based Advanced Fiberglass Concepts.
And since the GR Corolla picks up where the Subaru WRX STI left off, this rendering showcases the Toyota in the infamous blue-and-gold Subaru livery that went from an official rallying attire to a street icon decades ago. Alas, the current WRX won’t be getting an STI version, with the rumor mill mentioning that the limited sales of the super-sedan segment determined Subaru and Toyota, who work together on multiple projects, to come up with this strategy.
Toyota Japan is only building 6,600 GR Corollas for the 2023MY
Returning to the real-world arrival of the 2023 GR Corolla, U.S. deliveries for the hot hatch are expected to kick off this fall, even though nothing is official yet. Note that while the standard Corolla offered in North America is built at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant in Mississippi, the GR Corolla is imported from Japan (produced at the GR-specific Motomachi factory).
Toyota has confirmed to Edmunds that it’s only building 6,600 units for 2023, the first model year of the spicy compactโ1,500 will be the range-topping Circuit edition, which packs limited-slip differentials at both axles as the main feature, while the rest are coming in the “standard” Core form.
Coupling the said high demand with this limited supply means many prospective buyers worry about dealers adding hefty markups to the MSRP of the vehicle, which is expected to sit at around $40,000 for the Core model, with the Circuit version presumably adding $5,000 to that.
And since, as mentioned above, waiting lists have been getting longer for months now, with many people having even put down small depositsโas mentioned on various forum threads, the norm seems to be $500โsome buyers might have a lot of waiting to do before they can hit the pavement in this AWD beast.
