Top 10 Toyota GR models coming

Toyota is plotting a performance car assault on global markets and what started with the GR Supra and GR Yaris is set to expand to much of the brand’s model range – and will even include a million-dollar hypercar.

As South Korean arch-rival Hyundai continues to grow its own high-performance N sub-brand with more hatchbacks and SUVs, Toyota is plotting a number of high-profile performance flagships for its top-selling cars and SUVs over the next few years.

Now expanded to three tiers of hotted-up models, including GR Sport (mild), GR (hot) and GRMN (extreme), the Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR) high-performance sub-brand kicked off in spectacular style with the resurrected fifth-generation GR Supra in late 2018, but Toyota’s global CEO and self-confessed rev-head Akio Toyoda has long said the sky’s the limit for GR.

Probably the most highly anticipated GR model on the horizon is the Toyota GR Corolla, which was inadvertently confirmed by the brand’s North American operation in early 2020.

Expected to be powered by the same banzai 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine developed by Gazoo Racing for the GR Yaris, the new Corolla hot hatch would certainly give the benchmark Volkswagen Golf GTI food for thought, and should be similarly priced at around $50K.

Tipped to get upgraded suspension, brakes, steering, aerodynamics and the Yaris GR’s 200kW/370Nm powertrain, the Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch would also bring a sportier body kit, seats and steering wheel. The only real question is whether it will be front-wheel drive or AWD.

Likely to be the top-selling GR model for Toyota, the hot hatch could be joined by a wagon version of the GR Corolla too, if reports from Japan prove to be correct, giving Toyota a rival for the VW Golf R wagon.

Although it’s likely to be aimed at the US market initially, Toyota Australia has already indicated a strong desire for the tyre-shredding GR Corolla.

While the GR Corolla will be a relatively affordable option, the rumoured Toyota GR LandCruiser 300 Series could be one of the most expensive GR-badged machines ever made, with a potential price of close to $200,000.

That’s because this year’s new-generation Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series on which it would be based will itself bring higher prices, thanks to a host of extra luxury and technology features, not to mention a raft of new six-cylinder engines, including an all-new diesel supplied by Mazda, and because demand will exceed supply.

That will only increase if Toyota decides to drop the all-new twin-turbo 4.0-litre petrol V8 in from sister brand Lexus, which would attract significant sales in Russia, the Middle East and, well, pretty much everywhere except Europe.

Toyota has not yet confirmed GR or even GR Sport versions of its popular RAV4 but carsales understands it’s only a matter of time before the brand offers a street-wise version of its best-selling SUV.

Not unlike the changes made to the Toyota C-HR GR Sport compact SUV, the RAV4 GR Sport is expected to kick off proceedings with reworked suspension and steering delivering sharper handling, but minimal engine changes to the engine.

Instead, the focus will be on blinged-out 21-inch alloy wheels and a butch new sports body kit with restyled front and rear bumpers and trendy side skirts. With a little help from the most powerful RAV4 powertrain available – the lusty 225kW plug-in hybrid unit in the US-market RAV4 Prime – a top-spec RAV4 GR Hybrid could be a practical, fast and visually appealing package with super-low fuel consumption.

Toyota Australia has already released a GR Sport version of its increasingly popular small SUV, the C-HR, so the next logical step would be a faster, firmer and more powerful fully-blown GR version.

Going a big step beyond the existing Toyota C-HR GR Sport, the C-HR could even score the same 200kW turbo-triple/all-wheel drive powertrain as the GR Yaris, making it a very quick, albeit very expensive, hi-po baby SUV.

While the red-blooded Toyota GR HiLux is not expected to arrive for a few more years (because the current HiLux is not designed to take a six-cylinder engine), the wait for the Japanese brand’s answer to the Ford Ranger Raptor will be worth it.

Expected to be powered by the same Mazda-sourced 3.3-litre inline six-cylinder turbo-diesel that will power the next Toyota LandCruiser, the first Toyota GR HiLux won’t arrive before 2024 but it will give the Ford Ranger Raptor a black-eye with a 200kW/600Nm-plus punch.

Set to employ a heavily modified desert-dueling chassis tune comprising an increased ride height and reinforced mechanical components, the hard-core GR HiLux will employ learnings from Toyota’s Dakar Rally-winning GR HiLux racer, excluding its mid-mounted V8.

The Toyota Corolla Cross is essentially a Corolla on stilts with a new exterior design, which means all the good stuff that will make the GR Corolla a game-changing hot hatch will transfer to this SUV.

That means it could be powered by the same fiery 1.6-litre turbo-triple developed by Gazoo Racing. More likely, however, is that a milder GR Sport version of the Corolla Cross will be deployed, featuring suspension tweaks, a sporty cabin treatment and a butch new look.

The all-new Toyota Corolla Cross is set to be one of the brand’s top-selling vehicles this decade when it arrives in Australia in 2022, but it’s not clear if or when the GR or GR Sport models would materialise.

As left-field as this one sounds, Toyota has already launched a host of sporty GR accessories for the Camry in Japan and its Australia affiliate has not ruled out packaging them into a new GR Sport variant.

And given there’s a facelifted version of the latest imported Camry on the way, and that Toyota Australia previously produced locally developed TRD versions of its homegrown Aurion, a full-house Camry GR could also emerge one day.

That’s the badge that Toyota’s second-generation compact rear-drive coupe is expected to wear globally this time round, and it could also spawn a piping-hot GRMN flagship that ups the ante even further.

Even in standard form, like the new Subaru BRZ it will be twinned with, the 2022 Toyota GR 86 will dial up the power to 170kW/249Nm from its new 2.4-litre (FA24) four-cylinder boxer engine.

But a GRMN version could lift the 200kW-plus turbo version of that engine from Subaru’s next-gen WRX, and add a bunch of chassis and body upgrades.

With the Toyota GR Supra already cutting hot laps and attacking apexes at racetracks and on alpine passes across the globe, the next step in the born-again sports coupe’s evolution will be the GRMN variant – and it’ll be a rip-snorter.

Once again powered by a BMW engine, the Toyota Supra GRMN looks set to leverage the new-generation BMW M3’s S58 twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline six, which is good for 375kW and 600Nm in BMW guise.

However, reports out of Japan suggest the engine will be dialed up to bang out even more power, backed up by an ultra-stiff, track-ready chassis tune.

As well as upgraded brakes, suspension and improved body rigidity, the Supra GRMN may also get a wide body kit and will certainly get a massive rear wing and diffuser, along with a downforce-provoking front-end design inspired by the GT4 Supra race car (pictured). There may even be a half roll-cage as part of the package.

Last but not least is the Toyota GR Super Sport hypercar, which crams all of Toyota’s racecar know-how into one super-expensive, super-rare exotic.

Just 25 of these million-dollar machines will be built and the road-legal four-wheeled missile will be closely related to the brand’s upcoming Le Mans 24 racer.

Propelled by a high-revving mid-mounted 2.4-litre turbo-petrol V6 driving the rear wheels, plus a potent electric motor that drives the front wheels, Toyota’s scorching hypercar will pump out around 735kW of power.

Blend that with a low 1100kg-ish kerb weight and people will soon be adding the term ‘Toyota’ to conversations about the world’s fastest street cars.

With the head of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, creating his own one-off, V8-powered Century GRMN luxury limousine, it's clear that the Japanese car giant wants to build a performance car empire that leverages its motorsport endeavours.

Not long ago, Toyota exclusively manufactured appliances on wheels for cardigan-wearers that need their vehicle only to go from A to B. How times have changed.