GR Premiers GRMN Corolla —The Ultimate GR Corolla, Honed in Motorsports and at Nürburgring— | PRESS RELEASE

Aiming for a car that can attack the Nürburgring at full throttle

Spurred by the stance of Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman and Master Driver Akio Toyoda, a.k.a. Morizo, of: “If it’s going to bear the GRMN name, it needs to be a car that can duly handle the Nürburgring”, the development team honed the GRMN Corolla on what is said to be the world’s most grueling race course. Going all out on the Nürburgring, which provides road inputs and surface variations not found on regular test courses, highlights a car’s weaknesses. Developing the GRMN Corolla at the Nürburgring enabled crafting a car that can be controlled at will at all speeds, even on rough surfaces.

In addition to development through track testing at the Nürburgring, the GRMN Corolla also went through its paces in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series. It was also methodically validated using advanced driving simulators. But it was driving it at the Nürburgring that brought unexpected challenges to the fore. The development team overcame those challenges one by one in pursuit of achieving a high level of car-driver unity, enabling the car and driver to remain in constant, effective communication even when pushing the limits.

GR has applied the insights gained from GRMN Corolla development to the evolution of the base GR Corolla. For the 2026 GR Corolla, announced in September 2025 and launched in November of that year, the application of structural adhesive was extended by 13.9 meters to 32.7 meters to reinforce the body structure, and an added cool-air duct reduces the rise in intake air temperature during high-load driving. Both were the result of applying lessons learned at the Nürburgring.