Toyota GR Yaris
How the GR harks back to hot hatches of old – and its GRMN forebear
AS HOT HATCHES HAVE EVOLVED – GETTING faster, growing bigger, riding firmer and becoming altogether more serious – they’ve also lost something that made them so appealing in the first place. I was reminded of this on a soggy winter’s day back in 2018, when I found myself in a Yaris GRMN getting intentionally lost down a series of decreasingly narrow lanes. I hadn’t planned to go exploring, but something about that little Toyota had me almost involuntarily taking unfamiliar turns just to see what I’d find. And as we bounced over humps and out of dips, gently slip-sliding here and there, getting mud splats right up onto the side windows, I realised I was having an absolute hoot.
It was the kind of drive I hadn’t had for years, but which I used to indulge in all the time when hot hatches were more suited to such carefree fun. And the GRMN, for 400 lucky customers at least, had once again made it possible – desirable, even. No fretting about suspension hitting bump-stops, or the car being thrown off-line by a severe undulation, or there not being enough space to jink left or right to avoid a missing chunk of asphalt. Instead there was just that liberating feeling that comes with a quick, compact machine that’s willing to work with whatever type of road you put in front of it.
Fast forward to 2021 and within five minutes of beginning my month with evo’s GR Yaris long-termer those feelings had returned, and my internal satnav was soon recalculating my route home to take in as many fiddly back-roads as possible, even though it was dark and drizzly. Much like its toe-in-the-water forebear, the GR Yaris has that same Scrappy-doo spirit, feeling super-eager and up for anything.
It’s even punchier this time around, of course, the GR’S turbocharged triple producing 257bhp compared to the 209bhp of the GRMN’S 1.8-litre supercharged four, and there’s an extra 81lb ft of torque too, which in such a diminutive and lightweight (1280kg) package provides a terrific buzz.
I know some of my colleagues are a little disappointed that the Gr-four all-wheel-drive system doesn’t add more to that buzz, but when working in tight confines its relatively restrained approach has its place. In fact, after a couple of hundred miles in Sport mode, with its 30:70 front-to-rear torque split, I found myself just leaving the car in Normal, its 60:40 split ensuring traction is rarely an issue, even on the grubbiest tarmac, yet still able to give a useful line-tightening nudge from the rear on corner exit.
Is there anything I don’t like about the GR? Not including satnav in the Circuit Pack car seems nonsensical, especially as the screen is already there and even has a ‘Map’ button on it. The name ‘Circuit Pack’ itself is quite misleading, too, as it implies a harsh, filling-loosening ride, but in reality the ‘GR circuit-tuned suspension’ feels very much roadbiased – brilliantly so, in fact. More significant is the oversized interior mirror: I’m not as tall as my 6ft-plus colleague Adam Towler, which thankfully means I don’t have to permanently slouch to see out through the GR’S windscreen, but I still have to duck or lean to see around that mirror in left-hand turns.
But that’s it. Mostly I’ve just been marvelling at how the GR Yaris manages to pack so much joy into every journey you take in it – and wondering why on earth there aren’t more cars like it.
Ian Eveleigh
‘My internal satnav soon recalculated my route to take in as many fiddly back-roads as possible’