Toyota GR Yaris
REPORT 2
£29,995 OTR/£34,375 as tested/£396pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Does this hot hatch genuinely channel the spirit of the WRC?
DRIVER
Ollie Marriage
HOW FAST DO YOU THINK A CAR WITH 257BHP IS THESE DAYS? A quick glance at the spec panel here tells you what you need to know the GR Yaris does mph in secs Only it doesn’t
When I stuck the test gear on it at Dunsfold it actually scooted to mph in secs Now I haven’t stuck our GR Yaris on a dyno to see if it’s a suspiciously healthy example but actually that looks about right to me for a car with bhp/tonne because it’s a little monster o the line No launch control just WD and cracking torque delivery To mph secs it was as fast as the latest Porsche GT RS or Merc E S To mph it’s identically fast to a Merc AMG A To mph secs it’s up there with the fastest Meganes and Civics plus Porsche’s Cayman T There’s nothing junior about the performance of Toyota’s teeny tyke
What’s more it feels like the right amount of power for the chassis to cope with But is that stopping people extracting more power? Nah of course not British company Litchfield has already revealed that bhp is easily found from this new darling of the tuner industry
And then there’s Japan Over there aftermarket work is such big business Toyota gave tuners access to the GR Yaris before it was launched Now this is a little litre three cylinder engine HKS has liberated bhp from it bhp It has a new turbo intercooler and so on but no internal engine mods Nor was the transmission uprated Apparently it copes just fine Hmm Let’s take that at face value because if true it means that Toyota intended this sort of behaviour all along
But in order for the chassis to cope HKS has slammed it and fitted track focused componentry And really I’m not interested in that The GR Yaris as you can read on page is about rallying Come on tuners turn the GR Yaris into your dream WRC car
SPECIFICATION
1618cc, 3cyl turbo, AWD, 257bhp, 266lb ft
34.3mpg, 186g/km CO2 0–62mph in 5.5secs, 143mph 1,280kg MILEAGE: 1,001 OUR MPG: 25.2
GOOD STUFF
Cheaper to lease than the Mini. Also, 257bhp is plenty. And plenty more is available.
BAD STUFF
But does it really need it? Let’s have more rally rather than more race.