Does the GR Corolla reek of desperation?
Porsche has almost always offered a Weissach package on their cars that gives up all sorts of comfort and convenience for speed. On the 911's it gets rid of rear seats, gets rid of the frunk, puts a big ol roll bar in the middle of the car, moves to annoying center lock wheels, aero that scrapes on curbs, minimal noise deadening, worse fuel economy, etc.
All of this "desperation" leads to a 4 door sedan that crushes all other EV's, and runs almost as fast as the very fastest street cars ever made (and faster than most race cars too). I mean, this thing beats a non-street legal stripped Plaid with one seat that has massive aero and race tires around Laguna Seca and this thing can just be bought from Porsche with a warranty. That doesn't sound "desperate" - that sounds like Porsche being Porsche and making cars their performance focused owners want, and what they have done forever.
The irony here is that for Porsche, the rear seat delete probably made almost no difference to lap times- it's (not) there for marketing. People that buy these expensive, special cars WANT them to look different. What says "because racecar" more than removing the rear seat in a 4 door car meant to be driven by 50+ year old executives that need some way to stand out from the crowd? That's actually why we don't like this thing, because it's too expensive for most of us, not that it isn't a performance monster.
Meanwhile Tesla races the slowest 911 with a $100K+ Cybertruck and lies about who won in a quarter mile- who's desperate?
I mean, in this case, they are not charging for it. The package is free.
