Toyota COROLLA T SPORT
Toyota Certainly Arent Messing About With The T Sport Versions Of Their Latest Corolla. Theyre Serious Pieces Of Kit As Andy Enright Discovers
If you work as part of the motor insurance industry, please look away. This article is not for your eyes. Still with us? Good. Heres a fact.
After the insurance industry killed off the traditional GTI in the Nineties, it was a long time before seriously powerful hot hatches were offered for sale again.
Renault offered the Cliosport 182,
Honda followed with the Civic Type-R and then Toyota have joined the uber-hatch club with the Corolla T Sport.
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Imagine this car appearing for sale in, say, 1995. Insurers would have had a blue fit, labelling it a magnet for thieves, neer do-wells and hooligans the length and breadth of the country. It would be castigated, outcast and saddled with a Group 19 or 20 insurance rating, much as the
Ford Escort Cosworth was. With 187bhp to call upon, the Corolla T Sport has more power than cars we remember as serious driving machines from yesteryear- cars like the earlier versions of the
Lancia Delta Integrale, the
Porsche 944, the
Lotus Esprit and even the
Toyota Celica GT4.
But with power should come responsibility, and it is here that the Corolla aces its forebears, with postmillennial levels of safety and security. Steal a Corolla T Sport and Toyotas software engineering department ought to give you an automatic apprenticeship, such is the complexity of its silicon guardian. Like its less extrovert siblings in the mainstream Corolla line-up, the T-Sport model has been given a reasonably thorough facelift. There are revised teardrop style headlamps at the front, different light clusters at the back and other changes to grill and bumpers.
Most would never have recognised the T Sport as being at the dynamic end of the Corolla range, so low key was its styling, and the latest version makes greater play of its sporting intent and 189bhp powerplant. More supportive sports seats are fitted and the suspension has been beefed up to improve the old cars body control at speed. Performance dampers and coil springs are fitted to firm things up and rebound springs are introduced at the rear to further improve handling. The steering has been retuned to give a more direct feel.
"The engine comes on song with a metallic blare"
Acceleration at first appears chronically underwhelming. A rest to 60 time of 8.2 seconds in a superhatch doesnt cut the mustard in any way shape or form, itself representing only a marginal improvement on a standard 2.0-litre
Peugeot 307.
Fortunately, the Corolla feels notably quicker than this on the road with an engine that begs to be revved. The 1.8-litre powerplant is smaller than the 2.0-litre engine fitted to the Civic Type-R and despite its flatter feel, it generates a higher specific output, breaching the 100bhp per litre mark thats such a benchmark for quality normally aspirated sports powerplants.
Honda are slightly irked at being pipped to this by Toyota, but the fact remains that the Civic will hit 60mph in 6.8 seconds and the Corolla, well, it cant. A combined fuel consumption figure of 34mpg is some recompense, but you dont buy a car like this to watch the pennies. The Corolla T Sport is powered by the same 1.
8-litre VVTL-i (Variable valve Timing and Lift intelligent) 189bhp engine with six-speed manual gearbox that was first used in the Celica 190 and T Sport. You may equate this level of power with peaky engines that can muster about as much torque as your average two-stroke brush cutter and the Celica doesnt disappoint. Being out-torqued by a standard-issue 2.0-litre Ford Mondeo is something the T Sport would sooner omit from its CV, but the infectious nature of its engine more than makes up for this flaw.
Unless you live in a mountainous area. Or youre planning to use your T Sport for light caravanning duties. Otherwise youll find yourself giggling as you get the slow fizz as the blue touch paper is lit before the car screams away on a steady surge of power located at the stratospheric end of the rev range. Its not quite as certifiable as the Civic Type-Rs power delivery, but its still something that will impress your friends.
You need to work hard to access this power, but when you do, youll find the engine come on song with a metallic blare thatll have you laughing aloud. One caveat is the gearchange that lacks a solid detent between first and reverse. Shove it hard into first at the lights and dump the clutch and you may well rocket backwards into the car behind. Perhaps realising this fault, Toyota have fitted an annoying bleeper that sounds for the duration that reverse is selected.
Along with this entertaining engine, the Corolla T Sport also receives uprated suspension, brakes, red Optitron instrumentation, race-like carbon-fibre trims and high supportive sports seats.
Smart 16-inch alloy wheels with ultra-low profile tyres are a standard fitment and Toyota have also fitted something sorely lacking from the Civic Type-R, namely an electronics package, including Vehicle Stability Control, Traction Control and Brake Assist. Draw up at a set of traffic lights in a Corolla T Sport alongside a Civic Type-R and, unless the road surface is anything but bone dry, the Toyotas superior traction off the line will usually see it march ahead of the little Honda. Toyota has quite unashamedly used the
Volkswagen Golf as its quality benchmark and the cabin therefore features silicone-damped grab handles, soft-touch plastics on the fascia and doors that say thunk rather than ding when they close.
Closer inspection shows little evidence of corner cutting. In the final shakedown, however, the Toyota Corolla T Sport just doesnt produce either the performance figures or the untrammelled excitement to be deemed an unqualified success. The Corolla falls shy of Hondas Civic Type-R and SEATs Leon Cupra-R in a number of key areas. For some, however, just the manic rush of that engine will be enough.
Theres nothing currently on sale quite like the Jekyll and Hyde that is the Corolla T Sport.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Toyota Corolla T-Sport
PRICE: £16,000 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 14
CO2 EMISSIONS: 198g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 8.4s / Max Speed 140mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 25.4mpg /(extra urban) 42.1mpg / (combined) 34mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, ABS with EBD, VSC
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/height mm: 4180/1710/1475mm
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