Toyota has made GR86 Turbo AWD a reality

It was back in June when Larry Chen sneaked in at Evasive Motorsports to see what Toyota had in store for this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas. They wanted to put the GR Corolla’s running gear, along with its all-wheel-drive system, into the GR86 sports car.

While that sounds like something out of Gran Turismo, Toyota and Evasive Motorsports have successfully done the transplant – here’s the finished product.

Presenting the Toyota GR86 Rally Legacy Concept. As the name suggests, the SEMA show car is a throwback to the Celica GT-Four rally car that was highly successful in the Group A era of the World Rally Championship (WRC).

The GR86 Rally Legacy Concept has all the ingredients of the Celica GT-Four. A turbocharged engine, all-wheel-drive, red mudflaps, the Celica-inspired rear spoiler, huge rally lights in front, white Speedline tarmac-spec wheels, and a fantastic Castrol throwback livery.

Inside, the show car features a stripped interior fitted with a roll cage, Sparco bucket seats, and six point racing harnesses.

Doing the powertrain swap wasn’t exactly a straightforward one as the GR86 is designed around a longitudinally-mounted boxer-four engine that only sends power to the rear wheels. The GR Corolla, on the other hand, has a transverse-mounted three-banger that powers all four wheels.

To make that possible, Toyota had to create a custom subframe, engine mounts, and some bodywork alterations to adapt the GR Corolla’s front driveshafts. The AWD swap made use of the GR Corolla’s axles, wheel hubs, and spindles, along with the rear differential.

While the engine’s power output remains the same at 304 PS and 370 Nm of torque, the 1.6-liter three-cylinder turbo was given a performance intercooler, an oil cooler, and a standalone ECU for a wider tuning window. Instead of a 6-speed manual or the new 8-speed direct shift automatic, the GR86 Rally Legacy Concept has a sequential racing transmission.

Toyota says the GR86 Rally Legacy Concept is just a one-off build. But considering the serious work that the show car got, we think it’s a big hint from them about an exciting sports car that’s coming soon. GR Celica, perhaps?