Just a couple more sleeps before the long-awaited hot Corolla is revealed to the world.

IF it’s half as good as the GR Yaris, then any laughter will surely be wholly fuelled by gleeful excitement.

 That’s surely the scenario for the long-awaited GR Corolla, which Toyota will finally unveil in three days from now – yes, April Fool’s Day.

 In the countdown to this Friday’s rollout, Toyota has released a couple of close-up images.

 One’s a close-up of blistered front wheel arches, accompanied by black cooling vents and GR badges. The other seems to be of a side skirt, embossed with ‘GT-Four’. Yup, a Celica reprise from all those years ago.

 Those teasers come after Toyota last week released a brilliant US market promotional video for the upcoming (including for NZ) Toyota GR86 sports coupe, called ‘The Focus Group’, in which a camouflaged GR Corolla can be fleetingly spotted in several scenes.

 In a promo that’s simply too racy for NZ advertising standards - which don’t apply to MotoringNZ, hence why it’s here - you first see a front-on view of the car, hiding in an empty shopfront as a blurred GR86 sweeps past then, at the end of the video when characters discuss a mystery ‘third’ GR model. That’s a trigger for a second glimpse of the hatch’s roof and brakelights.

 Regardless that it is in the 86 movie, the Corolla likely shares more in common with the Yaris GR.

 GR Corolla is expected to be powered by a version of its smaller sibling's 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine, driving all four wheels through a six-speed manual transmission as standard.

 Whether it will be in the same 200kW/370Nm tune as the $54,990 NZ-spec GR remains to be seen. There’s talk that, because Corolla is a heavier car, it might be tuned accordingly. Are you ready for 221kW?

 The hot Corolla appears to share its 18-inch black alloy wheels with GR Yaris, these shod with sticky performance tyres and abetted by performance brakes with red brake callipers.