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Developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing, the new car will be driven by Seth Quintero in America
Photography by Toyota
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
More than a quarter of a century since the last one, Toyota has developed a new Corolla rally car – and this one’s coming to America.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has created the GR Corolla RC2 with world championship stars Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hänninen running the car’s test program. The all-new Corolla will make its ARA debut at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in March, with US off-road racer Seth Quintero driving.
The 23-year-old will compete on the seven remaining rounds of the series. Toyota is considering a second car on selected ARA rounds through 2026.
This will be Toyota’s third iteration of the Corolla, following the TE20/27 (a car which Hannu Mikkola used to win the 1975 1000 Lakes Rally) and more recently the Corolla WRC which took the Japanese manufacturer to the top of the world with the 1999 WRC manufacturers’ title in its final season.
Since then, Toyota’s been all about the Yaris. Until now.
The GR Corolla will compete in ARA’s RC2 category
Working in collaboration with Stateside firm Rallysport Services, development on the rally version of the GR Corolla began soon after the road car’s Tokyo Auto Salon debut at the start of 2025.
The GR Corolla RC2 utilizes the learnings from the GR Yaris Rally2 – the car which has just secured back-to-back WRC2 titles – and includes the same 1600cc, three-cylinder turbocharged engine and transmission. As the RC2 nomenclature indicates, the car will run at what Toyota describes as “roughly equivalent to Rally2” performance. It will be classified in the ARA’s RC2 category.
Explaining its arrival in American rallying, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s statement said: “By developing a GR Corolla rally car, TGR-WRT is harnessing the pedigree of the Corolla model within rallying and further expanding its efforts to use motorsport to help make ever-better cars for the road.
“It also hopes to support the development of rallying in North America, where the GR Corolla is available as a rally-bred performance car for the road.”
Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hänninen have tested and developed the GR Corolla
Already very much part of the TGR fold in the World Rally Raid Championship, Quintero admits he has a lot to learn as the GR Corolla RC2 replaces the DKR GR Hilux he used to win two stages at this year’s Dakar. The Californian has already tested the Corolla alongside Latvala and Hänninen.
Quintero, who will be co-driven by Finn Topi Luhtinen, said: “I’m very excited and grateful to Toyota Gazoo Racing for this opportunity. It’s truly an honor to link up with this team and to hopefully enjoy it and learn a lot.
“It’s a new challenge for me to go stage rallying. I’m used to driving 500 kilometers a day or more in W2RC, so doing up to 100km a day will bring a different intensity, and switching between the light and nimble GR Corolla and the bigger DKR GR Hilux will be two different worlds – but they are also similar in a lot of aspects and in the driving characteristics.
“So far, driving the car in testing has been so awesome, and the team has been so welcoming. I’ve got so much respect for everybody involved and I’m really hoping to make the team proud and have a lot of fun together.”
DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/12/MzbyesR4-TGR_Corolla_RC2_2-780×520.jpg December 19, 2025
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