This week Toyota unveiled a three-door, three-cylinder, 200kW Yaris. Of course, it’s officially called the Toyota GR Yaris. It’s unapologetically a rally car for the road, designed as the official homologation model for Toyota’s next WRC race car.
It’s built from a combination of lightweight materials, including carbon-fibre polymer and aluminium, all in a bid to achieve a 156kW/tonne power-to-weight ratio.
Serious performance design tune-ups
Designed in part by Toyota’s WRC racing partner, Tommi Mäkinen Racing, this little hatch features some serious performance design enhancements.
Image: Supplied
Starting with weight, the GR-Yaris curb weight is a cool 1 280kg. Then of course, power comes from a seriously tuned 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo engine that’s good for the quoted power figures above and 370Nm of torque.
The most exciting news of all — if you’re a performance car junkie — is that the GR-Yaris sports a six-speed manual transmission AND permanent all-wheel-drive.
A first in decades
Image: Supplied
This is the first all-wheel-drive sports car from Toyota since 1999 when it developed the Toyota Celica GT_FOUR. Celebrating this, the new GR-Yaris has adopted the same name plate on its rear boot lid, leaving you in no doubt that this is a serious little machine.
The AWD system is all-new, built lighter and with more flexible usability. Theoretically, the system can shift 100% bias to the front or to the rear, for a wider application of scenarios.
Using a switch on the control panel, drivers will be able to vary the torque distribution depending on the need.
Lower, wider, menacing is the word
Image: Supplied
The GR-Yaris sits 91mm lower at the roofline, features frameless doors and has a wider rear track contributing to a more aggressive and more racy stance. 18-inch alloys sit just below flared and sculpted wheel arches with the red-and-black Gazoo Racing branding visible from every angle.
Startling performance figures
Quoted performance figures for the Toyota GR Yaris are startling: 0-100km/h in under 5.5 seconds with a top speed of 230km/h.
There is no news on whether the car will be introduced locally, but Toyota SA is currently reviewing this as an option.
It would be a shame if the car does not make it here, especially after the successful introduction of the new Toyota GR Supra and after teasing local media with the limited-edition Toyota Yaris GRMN in 2018.
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