Toyota GR Yaris review

A Toyota hot hatch, if you want to hugely downplay it. Because it’s actually far more significant and exciting than that. And very much not a Yaris as you know it. Here’s the score: the regulations that govern top line rallying dictate that your car has to be based on an existing road car. This is called homologation and although your rally car can deviate from the road formula in many areas, in some key ones it can’t.

The latest regs say you have to build 25,000 road cars, so no one bothers any more. Until Toyota… did. Before the car’s reveal in 2020 it designed a rally car from the ground up first, and set about making it road-worthy second. Eight WRC titles and some 40,000 sales later, the gambit has paid off. Handsomely.

So how much of it is shared with the standard Yaris?

Let’s use the roofline as an example. It’s high in the standard Yaris so people can sit in the back, but the rally car wants it as low as possible so it doesn’t block air from the rear wing. Tommi Makinen, Toyota’s WRC boss, apparently wanted it even lower, but Toyota insisted the rear seats stayed in the road car. Similarly WRC regs say you can’t fit aero devices to the rear doors. So the GR Yaris simply does away with the rear doors. The roof is carbon fibre saving 3.5kg, the door skins, bonnet and tailgate are aluminium, removing another 24kg. It’s not even a Yaris chassis underneath. The front half is, but the rear is adapted from the Corolla and C-HR.

It has the Yaris’s 2,560mm wheelbase, its headlights, door mirrors and antenna. But that’s it. It’s 55mm longer, 60mm wider and 45mm lower (actually closer to 100mm lower at the rear). Under the bonnet is the world’s most powerful production three cylinder engine. Its single turbo spins on ball bearings, while the engine itself is hydraulically mounted on one side to reduce vibration and unwanted movement. The sort of tech that front line supercar firms like to bang on about.

The 4WD system is claimed to be the lightest on the market. Lightest, but not most basic. There’s an aluminium central transfer case and in Normal mode the torque is split 60:40 front to rear. That alters depending on the mode you choose. Track is 30:70 and Gravel 53:47. Skids or grip, you decide. At the rear there’s an electronically controlled clutch pack to divide torque between the wheels.

It’s a genuinely exciting car this, a hot hatch with a real purpose in life. After all, when was the last time we had a proper rally homologation special, something we can all aspire to? Not since the Imprezas and Evos of the 90s. This, then, is a once in a generation special. And to cap it all off, Toyota smashed it out of the park.

Cor! So this new one must be a very light update…

Er, nope. Instead of fiddling with the paint and calling it a job done, Toyota has gone back to the drawing board and put the GR Yaris through a complete root and branch review. Like parents forcing a straight-A student to do extra studying. After they’ve nailed their exams.

Its motto for this project is ‘develop, race, break, fix’, in reference to the punishing regime this car’s been through racing in Japan. Every detail has been subject to scrutiny, every bit of feedback from pro drivers and customers alike considered.

So, the headlines: the engine has been gently dialled up to 276bhp and 288lb ft of torque, up from 257bhp and 266lb ft. 0-62mph drops from 5.5 seconds to 5.2. Weight stays at 1,280kg, top speed’s still 143mph. Much strengthening has happened: previously there were 4,175 weld points (259 more than a Yaris) plus 35.4 metres of ‘structural adhesive’. Those figures are now 13 and 24 per cent higher with the update. Toyota’s used more bolts to secure the shock absorbers, with the aim of improving steering response and handling.

The six-speed manual - the beneficiary of a new dual mass flywheel - now has an eight-speed auto for company. Toyota reckons it’ll land you faster lap times. A Circuit Pack used to be a £3,500 option, but as most people bought it anyway, it’s been consumed into a single spec. So you get 18in alloys, Michelin Pilot 4S tyres, 356mm four-pot front brakes and 297mm two-pot rears (both vented and finished in red), plus mechanical front and rear Torsen diffs. Same torque split control, but more grit and guts in the system. More rally.

Toyota’s revamped the interior too. The driver’s seat is 25mm lower; the instrument panel’s 50mm lower and the rear-view mirror shifted to improve your view of the road; the digital display is new; the VSC-OFF and hazards are easier to reach. All in the name of putting the driver first, you understand. Especially if you’re on a track day. Hence the intercooler spray function.

Good grief. That’s a lot, right?

Yep. And all that for a car that was already a 10/10 machine in our book. You have to hand it to Toyota for not resting on its laurels: it’s put just as much effort into the sequel as it did for the original box office hit. Lesser manufacturers wouldn’t have.

What’s the catch?

Ah, thought you’d ask that. The original GR Yaris was insanely popular: Toyota shifted about 40,000 examples worldwide, half of those in Europe. Far more than the 25,000 it needed to square things with the WRC. Now it can afford to be more selective about production, and with CO2 targets to worry about it’s looking at a couple of thousand cars a year only. Boo.

And with novelty comes cost. When it launched the GR Yaris started at a snip over £30k. Forget that. It’s now £44,250 for the manual, or another grand and a half for the auto. There are a pair of specials named after rally champs Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera, but they’re £60k. Gulp.

Two things stand out. That Toyota has created this car at all, and that it’s done an outstanding job of it. Cars like the GR Yaris simply don’t happen these days when everyone spins countless bodystyles off one platform. Toyota is as guilty of that as anyone: look at the BMW-based Supra.

This is Toyota’s riposte. And it’s superb. It proves what we’ve long suspected: that a pukka road-going rally car is the best thing for tackling a modern B-road. Small and light, with punchy dynamics and a gutsy motor, it’s a deeply compelling machine.

We’re not sold on the direction of the update though. By refining the package in so many areas, the GR Yaris has lost some of the rallying DNA that made it so good in the first place. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a hoot to drive, with the playfulness of the old Ford Fiesta ST combined with the sort of composure and eagerness that Subaru Imprezas used to do so well. But it hasn’t got the pedigree of a Civic Type R, and with the price jump they’re now fighting in the same arena. Eek.