2026 Toyota “GR” Prius Review – The Car Toyota NEEDS TO BUILD!
All right. What’s up, guys? My name is Zach, and today I am driving a 2026 Toyota Prius XS plug-in hybrid. Up front is a 2.0 L inline 4 as well as a plug-in hybrid system, and down below is an ECVT. Now, I am super excited to be driving this plug-in hybrid Prius because this is a modified vehicle. So, normally in my videos, we talk about the interior and the buttons and the ride quality and the price and all of that stuff. We’re going to be breaking out of the mold here today and just talking about the drivetrain and modifications that have been done to this vehicle. The owner, Ken, has used off-the-shelf Toyota parts to build what he calls the GR Prius, a more performanceoriented Prius. And so, we’re going to get into that here today. But if you’d like to submit your own vehicle and have it reviewed here on the channel, you can head on over to my website, zacpradle.com/submit. It’s a quick and easy submission form. It takes under a minute to fill out and I come out to you. And if you’d like to see all my videos weeks or sometimes months in advance, you can head on over to my Patreon for only $5 a month. But let’s get back to that drivetrain. while it is still the standard 2 L inline 4 with the plug-in hybrid system. Now, this used to be called the Prius Prime, but for 2026, they actually removed the Prime name for just plug-in hybrid because Toyota’s offering a lot more plug-in hybrids, so they weren’t going to make a prime of everything, so they just cut it here. It still makes all factory horsepower. Nothing is modified in terms of power for this vehicle. There isn’t really much you can do. Apparently, there’s a company working on an ECU tune for these, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that. So, factory horsepower, which is up on the screen, still using the same ECVT, and it is still frontwheel drive. Now, you can get the standard Prius in all-wheel, but the primes only come in front, and that’s what we have here today. Let’s talk about the modifications done to this vehicle. Well, starting with the shocks and struts, this has the GR Corolla performance optional shocks and struts. So, not what comes standard on the GR Corolla, but what you can go to Toyota and get as an upgrade. It has those struts and shocks. It also has Swift springs from the GR Corolla and solid motor mounts. The wheels are 18 by 8.5 in 235 wider and stickier tires all around, which is actually a 40 millimeter wider tire than standard and a 2in wider wheel than standard. The owner has also done a more track focused alignment with -2 front camber and zero toe and negative 1.5 rear camber with.15 toe. This also has Toyota Highlander brake rotors and GR Corolla four piston brake calipers. So, while Toyota does not officially build a GR Prius, this is if they did. Because all these parts can be bought off Toyota’s website. These are genuine Toyota parts. Besides the wheels and tires, this build can be replicated and a Toyota dealer can install these for you. This was installed at a Toyota dealer. So, this is pretty much a GR Prius. And so, I’ve been driving this at normal, calm, collected speeds. It definitely drives worse. Just in terms of like the ride quality is a lot stiffer. When you do feel the gas engine kick in, it really, really kicks in. It is very aggressive because of those solid motor mounts. However, the stickier tires actually gives better turnin. The gas pedal feels more solid. And of course, the brakes feel more solid. It’s a lot more solid of a unit and an experience. So, I’m out here on the test track in Neapville to put this vehicle through its paces. I have not driven this in any aggressive way yet. So, what you’re about to see is my first impressions. All right. So, the owner said in order to get the maximum amount of power out of this vehicle, press and hold the traction control off. Okay. and then put it into hybrid mode, which should keep everything from turning off and going full electric. Also, put it up into sport. And here we go. Oh my gosh. Wow. It’s actually a Prius that can hold on to the road. Wow. I am very, very happily impressed. Here we go. Get some better tire screech noises. Wow. I mean, this thing is borderline glued to the road. H still a little under steerie, but you’re going to get that out of, you know, a front-wheel drive vehicle. Wow. It is so incredible. There we go. Look at that. coming in here. Yeah, it’s definitely still still under steerie, but I mean, this car is set up for an autocross vehicle. You’re not going to be doing as high-speed maneuvers as I’m just putting it through, but even still, it has the chops. I’m very, very impressed. And then you still have about 33ish miles of all electric driving. And I mean I it’s still a hybrid. You’re still going to get 40 miles to the gallon driving to and from the track. Wow. I am I am truly truly blown away. Is this the best track day car I’ve ever driven? No, of course not. But the fact that it’s doing what it’s doing and doing what it’s doing so well is really, really impressive. I am truly blown away by just some suspension, brake, tire adjustments. Wow, this is great. Here’s a shot of the interior. Here’s the back seats. Here’s the trunk. Oh, and with the interior, it does still fail the big freaking bottle test. No modifications there. Here’s the outside of the car as a walkound. Let’s talk just about these modifications. Let’s answer the question, why would you do this? Why would someone do this? Well, this is a very specific vehicle and I don’t think that Toyota is going to put this into production anytime soon because there isn’t really a market for it. If you are a hardcore enthusiast, you probably don’t want the Prius name. If you want a Prius, odds are you’re not taking it to autocross. So, the owner, Ken, has had to build this vehicle to sort of fit his little niche lane that probably wouldn’t sell all that well. Why would you do this over just buying a GR Corolla? This seems like a lot of work. Well, there’s two big reasons. First of all, the GR Corolla is expensive. To get something like this with this suspension setup out of the GR Corolla, you’re looking at about almost $50,000. You’re still going to have a cramped back seat. You’re still going to have a Corolla interior. And the Prius is just a nicer place to be overall. It’s a lot more usable and it’s a lot more daily driver friendly. More so, the GR Corolla has a very high cost of ownership. The reason he used Toyota Highlander brakes over GR Corolla brake rotors is because GR Corolla brake rotors are almost $900 a piece. Highlander rotors, same size, a lot cheaper. And so that barrier to entry is just a lot more affordable. Even with all of the upgrades, the owner is really up and around what he would spend on a GR Corolla. Sure, but this is a lot more daily driver friendly. I could take this to the store and it’s not going to beat you up. Yes, you do compromise that suspension a little bit, but it’s still a Prius. You still have electric mode. I’m driving right now in electric mode. I’m not using any fossil fuels. I could still plug it in at night and get 33 miles of electric driving range. Now, of course, those stickier tires do cut down on that range, but again, that’s sort of part of the game here. You have to make a couple compromises to build something interesting. And I think the biggest, most important thing about this and this video and this car is the fact that this was all done with factory Toyota parts at a Toyota dealership. You can go and do this. You can build your own GR Prius. And I have to say, I really truly am impressed. If you can only afford one vehicle, and most people can only afford one vehicle, but you like to do track days, but you got to commute 30 miles a day during the week. Oh, buddy, buddy, buddy. This might be it. I mean, you could even push this further. You could do Ricaro seats, although you would lose your heated and cooled seats. The owner is trying to figure out a rear strut brace. The issue here is that the plug-in hybrid has a larger battery, which is actually moved forward. So, the standard strut brace offered for the regular Prius doesn’t actually fit because the battery is now in the way. But, there are other avenues you could take it. Do a really cool livery and you’re going to have fun out on track. And another big benefit of building something like this is that he can actually run in naturally aspirated autocross classes. He can also run in the 2 and a half liter or below class where say buying an older E36 is going to push you up over that. A lot of vehicles are bigger than 2.5 L. This is a 2.0 L NA. This is going to compete with Geometros and CRXs and I think it’s more powerful than those vehicles. So, will Toyota ever sell a vehicle like this? Probably not. But you can build one. And if you do, it’s going to be really, really good. like shockingly good. Like it should not be this good, but it is. We will end the video with doing one more flying lap here in the Prius. Huge thank you to Ken for letting me borrow his GR Prius for today’s video. His sort of Frankenstein bastardized hybrid. If nothing else, this car is extremely interesting. Ken has been absolutely wonderful to work with. I reviewed his C43 and his SRT4 big turbo neon and those were just as entertaining as this and I think that’s saying a lot. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Don’t forget to rate the video. Comment on the video. Subscribe if you really liked it. And I got to take my traction control back off. There we go. Make sure it stays in hybrid and put us up into sport. Let’s do one for the kids at home. Man, it doesn’t make sense. And yet, it actually does. It actually does make quite a bit of sense. Take care, everyone.
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The thoughts, feelings, and opinions expressed in this video are the sole thoughts of Zack and no one else. The thoughts expressed in this video do not reflect the owner, dealership, or organization that owns the vehicle featured. The purpose of this video is to provide entertainment with the hope that you will take what you see and formulate your own opinions. DO NOT make a financial decision based off of this video.
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