Toyota GR Yaris
The Toyota GR Yaris – due to be officially revealed in January – will come with a 3-cylinder petrol engine good for up to 275bhp and 4WD.
The Toyota GR Yaris is a Yaris like no other, a car designed to show what Toyota can do in-house and serving as a base/homologation special for Toyota’s WRC antics.
It manages to be about as close to the sensible five-door Yaris as the Austin Metro was to the MG Metro 6R4 (a slight exaggeration), and looks set to deliver a benchmark for hot mini hatches.
Due to debut this month in Australia, before that was cancelled as Australia is on fire, the GR Yaris will now debut next month, ahead of which Toyota has let a few magazines loose on a prototype and delivered some – slightly vague – information and a video of the GR Yaris (below).
It seems the three-pot 1.6 litre petrol under the bonnet of the GR Yaris – set further back than in the regular Yaris – will deliver up to 275bhp, fed to all four wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. Which sounds rather fun.
The bodyshell is made of CFRP, carbon fibre and aluminium, the tracks are widened, the roof is lowered and double wishbones fitted at the back.
We have no idea how many Toyota are making, or how much the GR Yaris will cost, but the numbers are likely to be enough to fulfil demand and prices will probably be somewhere north of £35k.
We’ll find out more in the New Year.
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