Toyota seems to receive all the praise these days as the GR Yaris finds its way to more and more reviewers. This time it’s Harry Metcalfes’ turn to give his verdict on the Japanese hot hatch everyone loves.
The reason behind all the noise generated by the arrival of the GR Yaris is because cars like this one were considered obsolete. Homologation specials existed largely because car manufacturers were forced to build them in order to race and when the rules changed, sadly all those sweet performance cars went the way of the dodo.
We’re Driving The 2021 Toyota GR Yaris, What Would You Like To Know?
What’s special here is that Toyota decided to engineer a whole new body for its rally car, when they could much more easily opt for the existing five-door Yaris to base their next WRC contender. You can thank Akio Toyoda for this mostly unusual decision.
Toyota’s President, an avid car lover with a passion for racing, is believed to be instrumental in the development of the GR Yaris. The rally team required a three-door bodyshell for its next Yaris-based rally car as it provides a much more rigid foundation than the five-door and the expensive decision to engineer one almost from scratch was taken thanks to Toyoda himself.
To make matters even more impressive, Toyota opted to drop the roofline by 95mm for better aerodynamics and make most body panels out of aluminum for less weight. Want more? The roof panel is made out of carbon fiber. To call the GR Yaris simply a “Yaris” feels like a huge understatement. Sadly we will never see the WRC version of the GR Yaris as the rules changed for this season due to the pandemic.
Add to that the unique 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine – developed for homologating the unit in the R5 Class rally car-, a configurable four-wheel-drive system and the optional Torsen differentials and you’re getting an idea of how special this Toyota really is.
Metcalfe even had the opportunity to compare the stock GR Yaris to a Litchfield-tuned example, which had a 300 HP tune and their exclusive Nitron suspension. Rather interestingly he preferred the Nitron upgrade more than the engine tune, as he said that the power is more than enough to make you giggle at every given moment.