The Toyota GR Yaris is a wonderfully delicious piece of forbidden fruit for US fans of hot Toyotas. The three-door hatch has all-wheel-drive, a manual gearbox, 257 horsepower, and 266 lb-ft of torque, but since the USDM Toyota Yaris is actually a rebadged Mazda, it makes it impossible, or highly unlikely, that Toyota USA could bring the GR hatch to our shores. But there's a glimmer of hope we could still see an expansion of the GR brand, which already incorporates the GR Supra, as a tweet from Toyota USA has suggested the addition of a GR-badged hot hatch for the US market.

The tweet is accompanied by a photo of the GR Yaris sliding through a cloud of dust, rally-style, and once again confirms that the subcompact hot hatch will not be reaching our shores. But the next line, which reads "perhaps it's time the U.S. got a hot hatch to call its own" piqued our attention immediately, and fans the flames of the rumor that there's a Gazoo Racing version of the compact Toyota Corolla Hatchback in the works. This supports previously uncovered trademark filings over the 'GR Corolla' name.

The 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder from the GR Yaris is expected to carry over, but the AWD system needed for the GR Yaris to compete as a rally competitor won't, meaning the GR Corolla will be a hardcore front-wheel-drive hot hatch with more power than the 245-hp 2020 VW Golf GTI. There's good news for purists too, as the rumors suggest a GR Corolla would be equipped with a six-speed manual gearbox, and the chassis will get a thorough work over to make sure it's capable of going toe-to-toe with the best in the segment. There's no word on exactly when we might see the GR Corolla, but with Toyota confirming to CarBuzz that there will be more GR products in the US, we're hopeful that we might see the new hot hatch as early as next year.