From every angle, the GR Yaris looks feisty and angry.
Meet the Toyota GR Yaris, a pukka World Rally Championship (WRC) inspired car that ticks all the right boxes … and then some. You have racing heritage, ground up design, and a powerful turbocharged engine riding on all four wheels to bring you the most fun drive of 2021.
The crazy part is that I am talking about a Toyota here. That’s right, a Toyota from the people that bring you the world’s most reliable transport … and the Camry. Except, this GR Yaris hot hatch comes via Toyota’s Gazoo Racing and Tommi Mäkinen Racing, Toyota’s partner in the WRC, and it will forever change your perception of a Toyota.
By the way, the current allocation of the car has already been spoken for, but there is talk that we might get a few more in 2022. This said, let’s still discuss all those boxes that have been ticked with the addition of the GR Yaris to Toyota’s local line up.
Right up front there are two grades to choose from, the somewhat more garden-variety GR Yaris model and the bonkers Rally. The R606 600 base model features most of what you need for a fast road car, but it’s the R715 600 Yaris Rally that gets all the cool goodies to make it a formidable track weapon too.
They both run all-wheel drive, but the Yaris Rally gets a very trick Torsen limited-slip differential on both the front and rear axle, performance-tuned suspension, revised power-steering assistance and an upgrade to 18-inch BBS forged alloy wheels running on sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tyres.
Inside, the Yaris Rally gets grippy leather/Alcantara sports seats in the front with enhanced, a Head-up Display, the Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) active safety suite and Active Noise Control that amplifies and pumps in the engine sound into the cabin.
The interior is further finished in black with Smoke Silver trim details around the door handles, centre console, steering wheel and side air vents. While red stitching, GR branding and that all important special WRC commemorative plaque is fitted to the centre console to do WRC inspired motorsport duty.
You might not notice it immediately, but the gear lever is raised by 50 mm and set closer to the steering wheel, along with the GR-FOUR selector control that offers Normal, Sport and Track modes, that lives just in front of the gear lever.
ALSO READ: Rally derived pocket rocket Toyota GR Yaris priced
The rest of the interior is basic Yaris and consists of analogue instrumentation which features a 4.2-inch TFT colour multi-information display (MID) in the centre. The MID features a nifty all-wheel drive indicator showing the torque distribution, mode selected for the GR-FOUR system and a turbo pressure monitor. That’s of course if you have the time to watch such things while you are busy carving up a gymkhana course, racetrack or tackling a mountain pass.
Both models run the all-new, 1.6-litre three-cylinder ball-bearing turbocharged engine that is good for a world’s best 198 kW of power at 6 500 rpm and 360 Nm of torque between 3 000 and 4 600 rpm. An integrated oil cooler, large intercooler and high-volume cooling system are there to keep the temperatures under control when blasting around said racetrack.
Producing bigger Golf GTI TCR car-type power in a Polo-sized body is always going to be a recipe for dynamic performance and straight-line speed. Toyota claims their Yaris Rally will hit 100 km/h in just 5.5 sec and is electronically limited to 230 km/h, but it’s how it hustles around corners that is going to impress you most.
To properly put this statement to the test, we got to play with the Yaris Rally both on the road and at the Formula K karting track out on the East Rand. From the outside the flared arches and BBS wheels give the game away, and when you step inside and the bucket seats grab you, its game over.
You just know you want to throw this car around. The clutch is light, the gear shift of the six-speed manual gearbox is short and precise. The level of urge is relentless and the grip on offer is only equalled by the ease at which you can switch back and forth between corners.
A full suite of active and passive safety features including the likes of ABS, EBD, Brake Assist, Vehicle Stability Control, Hill Assist Control and four-wheel tyre pressure monitor system keeping you safe is standard fitment, while the GR Rally gets Pre-Collision System, Automatic High Beam, Lane Trace Assist and Adaptive Cruise Control via the TSS package fitted on this model.
Kudos to Toyota for breaking out of their traditional mould, this GR Yaris is a very special car that will excite performance enthusiasts and non-performance enthusiast alike.
GR Yaris – R606 600
GR Yaris Rally – R715 600
All GR Yaris models are sold with a nine service/90 000 km service plan and a three year/100 000 km warranty. For more information on the Toyota GR Yaris, click here.
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