The Yaris is this city car that has gone from being a pretty duff to becoming one of the most impressive in the World Rally Championship. But such editions are of course not available to ordinary people, but Toyota is celebrating the success of giving the people a “normal” Yaris that closes the gap to the rally cars quite a bit.
Behind Toyota’s investment in motorsport is Gazoo Racing, and they are more than happy to help make standard cars far more sporty. These editions are simply abbreviated GR, and now it’s ready for an all-new GR Yaris. Many people recognize the model name, because the GR Yaris was introduced three years ago. During that time, Toyota’s engineers, test drivers and professional rally and racing drivers alike have worked hard to make the car better, and yes, stronger. The GR Yaris had the world’s most powerful 3-cylinder engine when it was launched, and now it’s getting even stronger. The output has been increased by 19 hp to 280 hp, while the torque has been increased by 30 Nm to 390 Nm. But it is surprisingly not the biggest change.
The new GR Yaris also paves the way for an 8-speed Gazoo Racing Direct automatic gearbox, although not as standard. Because the car is supposed to pay tribute to driving pleasure, the GR Yaris will initially come with a manual gearbox. Toyota says that during the development of the new gearbox, the greatest emphasis was placed on quick downshifts, and that an automatic gearbox also allows the driver to concentrate even more on the steering and braking of the car. To improve the driving characteristics even further, they have also fine-tuned the chassis, which also allows for a slightly changed driving position and a lowered seat height by 25 mm. Both the wheel suspension and the suspension settings have been adjusted and the dampers reinforced, and this should give the GR Yaris an even better grip in extreme conditions. Furthermore, Toyota has increased the number of laser welds by 13 per cent and used 24 per cent more structural adhesive, and this has increased the stiffness of the light body so that the driving characteristics have improved both in terms of road holding and cornering properties.
On the inside, the GR Yaris also has a slightly more sporty feel, and one of the measures they have taken is to lower the upper edge of the dashboard by 50 mm so that visibility is even better. They have also moved the rear-view mirror and tilted the instrument panel 15 degrees towards the driver. This is how it looks inside:
In front of the driver is a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel with two display modes that can be switched between normal and sport, which shows several data related to the car’s performance. When Toyota introduced the GR Yaris, there was a lot of praise, so there is every reason to believe that the new and even slightly better GR Yaris will also hit the mark. And now it also offers more, because the Curcuit package with additional radiator, new intercooler with water spray system and modified air intake has become part of the standard package.
So what does the fun cost? Yes, here at home it starts at NOK 890,700 before shipping and delivery costs, and as you can see from the price list below, it is possible to choose between several variants. Yes, even a Rovanperä edition, one on which the last two years’ World Rally Championship has left its mark.
Because yes, the rally car Toyota Yaris has been such a great success that Kalle Rovanperä, son of Harri Rovanperä who competed against our own Petter Solberg, has won the World Championship for the last two years, and the Finn also became the youngest ever WRC champion when he took the title the day after he turned 22. In total, the Toyota Yaris has raked in the last five WC titles in rallying, so perhaps the only thing missing is that the GR Yaris has now received a small boost.
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