Talk to most car guys and gals, and when the subject of the death of the manual transmission comes up, you’ll get an earful. Something akin to, “You can pry that shifter from my cold, dead hands!”
The manual transmission is antiquated — that’s the honest truth. New automatics and dual-clutch transmissions are more efficient, smoother, and faster.
But the allure and the connectedness of the manual transmission remain. It seems younger drivers are starting to like it more too. Over half of buyers opting for a manual transmission Acura Integra are between the ages of 18 and 46, and about a quarter of manual Mazda Miata buyers are between 18 and 35, the companies say.
In the midst of its own transition to the future, Akio Toyoda — Toyota’s (TM) chairman and scion of the company that bears his name — decided the time was now to throw a bone to Toyota’s enthusiast fans before it was too late.
Enter the GR Corolla, a hot-hatch version of the automaker’s trusty Corolla hatchback. But the GR version (GR being an acronym for Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s motorsports division) is different in so many wonderful ways. And the competition is stiff in a world where it needs to compete with the Honda Civic Type-R, the aforementioned Acura Integra, and the Volkswagen Golf R.
It’s a Corolla but...different
Exterior-wise the Corolla hatch body is apparent but sexier. Toyota has added wider fenders, summer performance tires, and a bigger more pronounced grill for cooling. Functional exterior air vents and aerodynamic features have been added to aid stability, according to Toyota.
Under the skin, Toyota added more welds and increased the use of adhesives and frame reinforcements to stiffen the chassis. All of these changes are happening at Toyota’s elite Motomachi plant, where the ultra-rare Lexus LFA and Supra A80 were built.
Further under the skin lies a drivetrain and motor that no other Corolla has. Under the hood is a race-inspired turbocharged three-cylinder engine, which delivers 300 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque, with max horsepower coming in at its 6,500 RPM redline. The power goes through a unique, rally-inspired GR-Four All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) drivetrain. This system gives drivers a choice of 60-40, 50-50, or 30-70 power distribution to dial in traction to the front and rear wheels.
And it only comes in a six-speed manual.
The drive
My colleague Rick Newman, an owner of many manual transmission cars, joined me in our test of the GR Corolla, in which we drove through the winding roads of Westchester County, New York.
Hop into our ‘core’ version of the car. Its very basic interior alludes to its everyman Corolla roots. Toyota did add different digital displays under the instrument panel for various readouts like traction and turbo pressure, and there is a rotary switch for dialing in the AWD split front to rear. The highly bolstered, race-inspired seats are nice.
Slipping into the seat and firing the turbo-three cylinder is an occasion — the car is loud in a good way. That manual shifter falls in the hand nicely, with short-ish throws and a reassuring mechanical feel when rowing through the gears. I would have preferred even shorter throws, but this shifter combined with a clutch that had a nicely defined friction point worked very well.
The car wails at high RPM with a sporty exhaust note coming out of its triple exhaust system. The steering feel is extremely direct, and there is no dead point, it seems, in the steering rack. The car is quick off the line but even quicker as you let the engine out and rev it higher. The first and second gears come quickly, and the third is where the car starts pulling, hard.
In this little Corolla, one can get over the posted limits quite easily. Switch the car into sport mode, sending 70% of the power to the rear, and you have a very aggressive setup. It is a wonderful driver’s car that hugs the road and inspires confidence with its all-wheel drive grip (and performance Michelin PS4 tires), and that engine that wants to wail to no end. What a package.
A few drawbacks: The interior could be nicer, and in higher trims like the Circuit edition, you can get Alcantara-like suede seats and a nicer shifter. This being a Corolla, it has a decent amount of hard plastics, a smallish center touchscreen, and a wireless CarPlay setup that takes eons to get fired up.
But these are all small complaints for a wonderfully fun, dialed-in car. And you get all this for, and I’m not kidding, $40,159 out the door. This even includes the performance package (front and rear limited slip differentials), cold-weather package (heated seats and steering wheel), and the tech package with 8-speaker JBL audio.
Akio Toyoda made sure his company was bringing a lot to the table in this package. He also made sure it was a deal for those who still appreciate hard driving and rowing their own gears.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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