I’m extraordinarily lucky to drive so many new and interesting cars for my job. And, as you’d expect, some are fun to drive, while others are a bit bland. That’s pretty normal.
This weekend, I was handed the keys to the fairly new-to-market Toyota GR Corolla, the hottest, spiciest and most fierce type of Corolla the nameplate has pretty much ever had.
Last Friday, more than 100mm of rain fell from the Sydney skies and whipped the place around quite a bit. It was the most rainfall we’d had in quite some time.
So it was not exactly enthusiast driving weather.
But out of nowhere, the heavens cleared and both Saturday and Sunday became clear as ever. It was astonishing (see nice photos below).
100mm+ one day, clear and beautiful blue skies the next – I couldn’t get my head around it.
Okay, enough about the weather…
Toyota’s GR Corolla is quite the rascal. It’s got a raucous heart and wants to be driven with aggression.
Around town, it’s a pretty sweet thing, but put it through some corners, and it excels. The GR reminds me a lot of my Ford Focus XR5 Turbo, but even more pinpoint precise and incredibly darty with even the smallest of steering inputs.
I fired the GR to life in my basement garage, and it immediately responded with a surprisingly low rumble for a little turbocharged 1.6-litre three-cylinder unit.
Off I went, rowing my way through the six-speed manual transmission with a deep sense of nostalgia. Oh how I missed my little Focus of days now long gone by.
You sit low in the Corolla, and you can truly feel the thrum of the engine through the steering wheel and the gearshift. It’s raw and exciting. Through first and second gears, the three-cylinder engine thrums right through to the core of your chest, even feeling at times a little droney.
The GR bounces around town on its firm springs, but get it up to speed and the experience is altogether wholesome.
I felt a bit average before I got in the GR Corolla, but within only a few minutes, everything very quickly made sense.
By the time I had brought the Corolla back home and parked it up for the night, we had bonded together like few other cars I have experienced.
By the end, I had nailed every gearshift, and everything about where I placed the car and how I drove it, was in sync. It was pure magic.
…
When I drive a really good car, I have to sit back and think about it a fair bit. To let it truly sink in.
The Toyota GR Corolla is one of those cars and I find myself now wanting one for myself.
It’s hard to put into words, but the GR Corolla was a car that truly made me happy.
Other machines, like the Hyundai i30 N, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the BMW M2 and even cars as physically insignificant as the Kia Picanto, have made me a very happy man over the last few years.
For me, I get into a car and I know almost immediately if it’s going to be a winner. It comes down to a few key things, such as:
- A great driving/seating position
- An engine that is characterful and offers some X factor
- A sense of comfort and familiarity, even in the very beginning
- A car that makes you want to go back and drive it time and time again
- A feeling that you’ll never be bored driving it
- It challenges you with how it drives
If a car can do these things, it not only makes for a decent driving experience, but it also makes me feel good and rewards me based off my actions.
Cars are different for a lot of people. Some people couldn’t care less about the way a car drives or how they might make you feel, but for me, a good car can be healing.
A good car can also be insightful, and thought provoking, and even emotional to the driver (or even the passenger/s!).
We hear car companies talk all the time about making cars fun and sporty (Cupra comes to my mind immediately), and that’s because they have designed their automobiles to excite and reward.
It’s a thing, trust me.
So when I have to hand the keys back to the GR Corolla tomorrow, odds are I’ll be pretty sad about it.
Cars that make you think and feel really are the best of the best.
Love,
Zak
Tales from a Bruised Mind 
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