Nearly 300 horses in a city car less than 4 meters long: this has almost never happened before!
This explosive cocktail is to the credit of the world leader, Toyota, more renowned for its seriousness and its hybrid engines than for unbridled models.
While generalists are deserting the bomb market one after the other to reduce their carbon footprint, the Japanese manufacturer is resisting.
At the end of 2020, he launched an incredible city car which only had Yaris in name and a few character traits.
Bearing the badge of the Gazoo Racing sports division, this Yaris GR served as much to celebrate the brand's recent successes in the World Rally Championship as it did as a technical basis for the development of WRC cars.
The success exceeded expectations: 18,000 copies, double the initial estimates, were sold in Europe, including 1,082 in France, despite the explosion of the penalty.
After three years of career, under the leadership of Akio Toyoda, the former president of the group, Toyota decided to continue the GR adventure.
The designers took the opportunity to modify the front face in order to improve airflow management and cooling.
Still based on a Yaris front platform and a C-HR rear cradle, the new model will also be recognized by its new light signature at the rear.
Toyota
The main modifications focused on the engine, chassis and passenger compartment.
The 3-cylinder 1.6 liter turbo has lightweight pistons and increased combustion pressure to gain 19 hp to 280 hp.
At the same time, the torque gained 30 Nm to 390 Nm. The power is still transmitted to the four wheels but, for the occasion, the engineers have modified its electronic management with a variable torque distribution in Track mode (between 60/40 and 30/70).
The improvement in road behavior also involves firming up the suspensions and increasing the rigidity of the body (13% more welding points).
Finally, it's a surprise, an eight-speed Aisin automatic transmission, available for an additional 2,500 euros, completes the system.
Automatic transmission
When you get on board, you notice that the seat has been lowered by 25 mm, this was one of the criticisms made by the owners of the first generation, and the integration of a completely redesigned dashboard around a large inverted L-shaped block and oriented towards the driver for its central part.
The digital instrumentation is based on a 12.3-inch screen.
A few laps on the Jarama circuit, near Madrid, are enough to appreciate the developments made.
The engine breathes even better at all revs, allowing quite astonishing acceleration for a car of this size.
On this technical route, the Yaris GR has not transformed but the body movements are even better contained and it offers greater stability when exiting the curve.
While the six-speed manual still provides old-fashioned fun, the real novelty lies in the automatic transmission.
Equipped with great responsiveness and able to be controlled using the paddles on the steering wheel, it contributes to ease of handling.
From there to allowing better times than with the manual gearbox, there is only one step, which the Japanese engineers do not hesitate to take.
The Yaris GT Edition Ogier and Rovanparä.
Toyota
The latest Yaris GR is already available to order at a price of 46,300 euros to which must be added a penalty which has exploded.
With the manual gearbox, you will have to pay a tax of 45,990 euros, due to CO2 emissions of 190 g/km.
As for the version with automatic transmission, its emissions of 210 g/km mean it is weighed down by an ecotax of 60,000 euros.
This year, Toyota France has planned an allocation of 300 vehicles, not counting the special “Ogier Edition” and “Rovanperä Edition” versions, in homage to the last two world rally champions.
These models, which are expected to be marketed in Europe in limited editions, receive all-wheel drive programmed to reflect the preferences of each of the two drivers, as well as specific design elements.