Quite recently over the years, there have been some amazing hot hatchbacks. However, none of them come close to the Toyota Yaris GR-Four, a car 90% similar to its WRC racing counterpart. Made as a homologation special for the WRC, Toyota is expecting to make 25,000 of these cars however, more will be made if there is a demand. What is a homologation special? It is essentially where a car manufacturer must road variants of their racing car which will be partaking in the race series. There is a minimum but no maximum. A key example of this is the Mercedes AMG GTR or the Porsche GT1.
This essentially means the GR Yaris is a rally car for the road. It’s an AWD hyper hatch powered by a 1.6 liter 276hp 273 lb-ft of torque inline-3 and it pushes to 60 in 5.2 seconds before topping at a limited 143 mph. It is a fast car with no automatic option in sight (unless you downgrade to the RS trim in Japan). This is the world’s most powerful 3-cylinder engined car right now, but its crown will soon be taken when the Koenigsegg Gemara is released which pushes out over 1700hp.
The GR Yaris is an old school hot-hatch. It’s fun, fast, and serious. The engine is very punchy and it sounds crazy in the higher revs. The reason why this hot hatch is better than the rest is simply that it has a purpose. It wasn’t made out of the blue to rival the latest hot hatches from Renault, Ford, or VW. It wasn’t made to make serious profits from the hot hatch industry. It was made simply to enter racing. Yet here is what Toyota did better. In WRC regulations it doesn’t state how similar the road car has to be to the race car. You could essentially then make a standard boring hatchback for homologation purposes. Toyota could have made the Yaris into something dull but instead, they made it 90% similar to the WRC race version.
GR is Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s performance division. Essentially a replacement as such to TRD Toyota Race Development. GR to Toyota is like AMG to Mercedes. Gazoo Racing is a race team partaking in LeMans and WRC. The GR Supra is another example of a GR car.
What is WRC?
WRC is the World Rally Championship. Founded in 1973 you may have heard it through cars like the Lancia Stratos or even racing categories such as the infamous Group B. WRC essentially is racing on dirt tracks, areas where you would class as “offroad.” WRC is a daring sport as unlike F1 it does not involve smooth tarmac whatsoever. There are no high tech braking systems, no high tech designs, or even no state-of-the-art race circuits. The only champagne served is at the end of the race for the winning team and the fans don’t get to sit in fancy stadiums, instead, they have to be one with nature.
Essentially nature is the racetrack. WRC cars are also based on cars that you would quite commonly see on the street. Some infamous WRC cars include the Subaru Impreza and the Mitsubishi Evolution. WRC is in some areas high tech with the fact that the cars themselves cost over $1 million to develop. They’re not just hatchbacks with fancy body kits then. Some famous drivers include the legendary Colin McRae (rip) and Tommi Makinen, who actually oversaw the development of the Yaris GR.
WRC states that the car you make must be a real-life production car, not just a car built for racing like F1 or LeMans cars. The real-life production car has to be mass-produced. This is why so many car companies tend to choose small hatchbacks for their rally vehicles as they sell well to the public and that they do not need to make them anything like the racecars used in WRC.
Is the Yaris GR Really as Good as People Say it Is?
We know the feeling of sometimes it’s too good to be true. Many car manufacturers have overpromised over the years and have wholly underdelivered. This is the same with car reviewers, whereby they wholly praise and praise a car and when you come to drive it yourself you realize the car itself is terrible. Yet the GR Yaris is different. It wasn’t made to impress people by Toyota. The manufacturer never promised a hatchback better than sliced bread. Instead, they made it AWD, lightweight, and took history lessons from the likes of the old hot hatch WRC races like the MG Metro 6R4 or Lancia Delta S4. This thing feels like a proper rally car in the bends and it feels angry in the straights. Like a rocket ship.
The GR Yaris is the last of its kind. When was the last time we got a rally car for the road? The last time we got a hot-hatch this insane? Yes, the likes of the RS3 and A45 are cool but they’re no Yaris GR. They’re not as wild nor as influential. The Yaris GR is a proper racecar for the road with the track mode function spitting AWD power 50:50 between the wheels. If you do want the tail out on this car you can use sport mode which sends 70 percent of the power to the rear and 30 percent to the front. Imagine the buckets of fun you can have with that.
It’s a good looker too being quite a chubby chunky car. Its 3 doors only sharing hardly any other parts with the standard Yaris. Inside its nicely laid out with its CarPlay and Android auto functions however, the interior isn’t the best. Many other hot hatches have more characterful interiors, however, this thing is meant to be driven. It is not a luxury car, investment has been made elsewhere.
The Yaris GR is also made in the Motomachi plant where the LFA and the LC500 are made. Essentially this car is built where the most special Toyota vehicles are made. This proves that this car truly is special and isn’t just some average hot hatch that will be reproduced in the next generation. Yes, many will be made but it’s still a special car because it’s so different and unique. Demand is extremely high for this thing and it’s not even being launched in America.
Wait. It’s not coming to America? Are you insane? It would sell so well though? Simply because Toyota said they don’t want it to. Hot hatches are not too popular in the US as they are in Europe, Japan, etc. However, Toyota will make a GR-derived car soon in the US probably based on the Corolla or maybe even the Camry.
Featured image credits via: thesun.co.uk