Since Mitsubishi canned its Lancer Evo almost a decade ago, the Subaru WRX STI has pretty much had the all-wheel drive rally replica market to itself. But Toyota’s little GR Yaris changed all that.

The hot Yaris was created to homologate Toyota’s new WRC rally car, and though the company then decided to continue racing with their old car, it still went ahead and delivered the road-legal GR Yaris.

Both cost similar money ($57,690 AUS/$42,575 USD for the WRX, and $49,500 AUS/$36,531 USD for the Yaris), and while the fact that one’s a usefully roomy four-door sedan and the other a pocket-sized hot hatch might put them in different segments, there’s a good chance some buyers might be deciding between them.

The Subaru is powered by a 296 hp 2.5-liter boxer four, and the Yaris makes its 268 hp courtesy of a 1.6-liter triple, but the Toyota’s 644 lbs (292 kg) weight advantage should make it a fair fight.

Related: How Much Better Is The Toyota GR Yaris With LSDs And Sticky Tires?

To decide which is best, Australia’s Car Expert website drafted in former WRC ace Chris Atkinson to conduct a track shootout. ‘Atko’ drove for Subaru’s WRC works team between 2004 and 2008 and has also worked for Mini, Hyundai and Citroen’s WRC teams, so he’s well qualified to decide which is the most fun, and which delivers the most authentic rally car feel.

Being a genuine rally dude he’s also a massive fan of yanking on the handbrake to get the cars to turn, neutralizing some of the understeer built into both cars, which isn’t the sort of thing you can get away with at your average weekend trackday if you want to last more than a couple of laps before being kicked out.

Atko says the shorter Yaris feels a little more nimble, but that agility also means it can feel a little less stable. And since the test Yaris is the base car and lacks the Circuit Pack, so it’s not equipped with front and rear limited slip diffs, it sometimes washes wide when the Impreza is still clinging on.

And it’s that lack of traction that costs the Yaris in the final reckoning. It laps the test track in 61.53 seconds, compared with 60.73 seconds for the Subaru, but Atko suggests the more expensive Rallye edition of the Yaris with the frond and rear LSDs would be able to claw back that deficit.

The biggest shock for us though was seeing on the Car Expert leaderboard that Kia’s Stinger GT posted a quicker lap time than the WRX. Now that’s a surprise…