Of course the Corolla can handle that duty, that is nothing for that car. Toyota knows a very very high # of people will tune this car and a higher percentage of people then the Kona N, I would be willing to bet. It's AWD, a mega plus over 2WD. A whole other league of people jump in then. Just as it would with a Kona N AWD. Towing 1,300 to 1,400 for a AWD sport hatch is nothing. You seem to think Yugo is building the GR Corolla AWD?
Plus, I think we all can agree the GR Corolla is kinda ugly, even when I like quirky cars. I would have to see one in real life.
As for handing better then a stock Kona N, **** yeh, not even the slightest doubt. I only will add .5% doubt on a lowered one to appease you. It's the same exact car, with the exception of ther N is a hair stiffer body wise. I am so killing proper weight distribution, it is not even funny. The Miata comes to mind on where a stock body rolling happy Miata can beat highly modified car just because of proper weight distribution. I am far closer to proper weight distribution nirvana, that you will never have, unless you load weight. And I have no problem loading weight to increase handling. Winning a drag race is so fleeting then hitting evey corner with a properly balnced car is so much better, and happens on every "sport corner".
As it sits the Kona N and 1.6T AWD Kona weight the same. I have 80% more semi-solid bushing that the Kona N doesn't have. I see you have no clue what that heavy battery is doing to your handling. Can you add all that, yes. You will also never be able to reduce the HP/TQ shear load on your front tire to increase grip that I have. A tire can only has 100% grip, you add steering and WOT in a tight corner and you get understeer. You put 40% power the the rear tires and you have increased grip to the front tires to increase speed through the corner. To bad I can't afford summer rubber every year and have to go Ultra High Performance All-Season tires, I would get even more grip.
As far as parts, I guess I don't get this comment. If you go on to Hyundai tuner sites and tuner aftermarket suspension company's around the world very few of the parts that will fit the Kona 1.6T are posted. Like you, I knew most should fit as Hyundai uses the same basic parts through out their models. I had a connection to a guy at Whitline USA before The virusBS where we went over blueprints of their parts. Whiteline AU said they doubted they would fit out of lack of trying and laziness. As I posted before, 95% of the parts for the Veloster N/i30N will fit my car as far a suspension. But every purchase was a gamble as some purchases did not come with a return policy. I am working on building my own an 300 cell EPA catted downpipe this winter as I have a TIG welder and can build my own. I am concerned on the hybrid Pure Turbo seal issue. 2 people having to pull the turbos twice so far within a month. Mine is a daily year round, makes me want to stick with just 280 and be done/semi reliable.
As I said before, you have zero knowledge on what the 7 speed transmission can take, ZERO. The wall can tell the same insightful info on what the 7 speed trans can take. We have 500hp Veloster's on 5 speed manuals that are the same size as Kona's manual section of the gearbox. Will it last 125,000 miles with that hp, no but 50,000 and not blow up at the 1,000 mark, most high hp modders are good with that. And kinda expected. We have a poster here that that has 500+ hp Kona that said zero issues with the 7 speed trans with the exception of the axles as we all know usually is the weak point on all "pushed" higher hp cars. He said the axles are good to 390 hp. He is 2wd and an AWD puts the hp/tq down to 4 points so there is additional buffer space for more hp/tq. Plus as I posted before I have seen the AWD front dif vs the 2wd front diff and the AWD diff is at least 25/30% more robust . The rear 1.6T rear diff is rated to 900 ftlbs of tq by the manufacture. So the transfer case is the only issue no one so far knows of. 325hp/340tq everything seems good so far from a guy who drag races it semi weekly. I hope the rods hold up. We had Sixth owner who had 425 hp on a stock 1.6T block last for a couple months without blowing up and then he de tuned and sold it.
I assume the German designers used the Golf R's transfer case as a "known guide" and maybe downsized it a bit, we will never know. At least the Kona was full designed by VW/AUDI/BMW engineers, and they always build in extra robustness a tad more then Asian engineers.
Like I said before, if the "better half" was not there. That is why I had a semi slow meticulous build, plus I am limited to slow build on "performance $" I would already be driving a 400/450 hp Kona AWD 2 years ago. All self built, as I don't need the dealer to put my suspension in like some people do. The only thing I would leave to the pros is the tune and installing a new dual clutch that the mechanic has had at least 5 dual clutch installs under his belt, unless I had a 3rd car to use on the latter. if the motor blows on my car, I buy a beater and rebuild my own motor as I already have about 10 sport/race motors under my belt.