First Drive Review: Toyota GR Yaris

Monday, 16 November 2020

A wet skid pan and an AWD rally-bred hot hatch? Yep, that's time for skids.

TOYOTA GR YARIS
Price range: $54,990
Powertrains: 1.6-litre petrol inline three-cylinder petrol turbo with 200kW/370Nm, 7.6L/100km, six-speed manual transmission, AWD.

You can see the GR Yaris means business even when it is standing still.

Body style: 3-door hatch.
On sale: Now. But they are all sold…

The wider rear track comes courtesy of the Corolla.

Are you a fan of stupidly powerful hot hatches? (puts hand up) How about tiny cars with three-cylinder engines? (leaves hand up) Well, you will probably be very, very excited about the arrival of the Toyota GR Yaris, an AWD rally-derived version of the Yaris with a bellowing 200kW triple. (waving my hand very excitedly now). And now it's finally here.

Make me an instant expert: what do I need to know?

The belligerent little GR Yaris is basically the result of Toyota letting its racing department loose on a car more traditionally associated with your nana in order to make the most of your rally success.

**READ MORE:

The GR Yaris is fantastically confident and composed, even in the wet.

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* Toyota NZ has plan to become a cool brand, with help from great Gazoos

The GR Yaris packs 200kW 1.6-litre three-cylinder engine. Yes, you read that right.

* Toyota not interested in GR-spec Yaris Cross

Pretty much reverse engineered from Toyota’s WRC car by Gazoo Racing, the GR Yaris is essentially a hybrid – no, not in the tree-hugging sense, more in The Island of Dr. Moreau unholy man-beast hybrid sense.

The GR Yaris was savagely good at going sideways on the skid pan.

You see, while underneath the front half is all Yaris, the back half is, well, Corolla. Both sit on the TNGA platform, but the Corolla has a wider track, which the GR Yaris exploits for its own purposes here.

Add that wider rear track to a bespoke three-door body and a mental powertrain and you get a GR Yaris.

How mental is that powertrain? Utterly and completely mad. Totally barking. All in an exceptionally good way, that is – the GR Yaris is powered by an all-new 1.6-litre inline three-cylinder turbo unit that cranks out a thoroughly staggering 200kW of power and 370Nm of torque. I’ll let that sink in for a bit.

No, you don’t need a race suit to drive the GR Yaris, but track days certainly beckon.

Now here’s some more good news: it also comes hooked up to a six-speed manual transmission. It’s pretty much a driving purist’s dream all wrapped up in a pensioner’s car.

Where did you drive it?

At a race track, of course.

Toyota chose to hold the GR Yaris launch at Hampton Downs and, because it was a powerful car launch being held at a race track, it rained. A lot.

However, that proved to be actually quite a good thing, because the GR Yaris is also AWD, meaning that we got a thoroughly excellent feel for just how good it was in soaking wet conditions.

First up was a couple of “hot laps” for lack of a better description around the skid pan with former Toyota Racing Series champion Daniel Gaunt behind the wheel to show just how savagely sideways it can get under provocation, with lurid four-wheel drifts punctuated with the belligerent roar of the fantastic little triple.

Then it was time fo us to hit the track behind the wheel.

First up, the GR Yaris looks, sounds and feels fantastic. Everything about it screams that it just wants to go fast, and go fast it does.

The six-speed manual transmission is a wonderful thing that snicks from gear to gear with a short throw and positive feel, while the clutch is perfectly weighted.

The 1.6-litre roars, snorts and launches the GR off the line at a remarkable rate (Toyota claims a 0 to 100kmh run of 5.2 seconds, but it feels way faster than that, even in the wet), keeping up the unrelenting push right through its rev range, making punching it out of corners a massively satisfying and electrifying thing to do, even in the awful weather conditions.

While we didn’t get to drive the GR Yaris on the road, the engine did feel wonderfully tractable and docile at low revs trundling up and down pit lane.

But it was the utterly fantastic chassis that was the undisputed star of the show – the GR Yaris is beautifully balanced and superbly composed, handling both the big punch from the engine and the atrocious conditions with effortless aplomb.

Even when the driver acts like a total meathead and completely messes up the entry to a corner by going in WAY too hot (not me, I swear) it is so willing and utterly predictable that you just catch and correct it. And feel like a hero even though it was the car that did most of the heavy lifting via its excellent stability control and chassis…

What’s the pick of the range?

Unlike in Australia, Toyota New Zealand kept things simple by just bringing in the top spec (and best) car, so it’s just a single GR Yaris for us.

In keeping with the fact that it is significantly hotter than your average hot hatch in the segment – it effortlessly out muscles and out paces the likes of the Ford Fiesta ST and Volkswagen Polo GTI – it also asks more money for its prodigious abilities. $54,990 to be exact.

And before you scream that that is a RIDICULOUS price for a Yaris, close to 50 people didn’t think that, because aside from four cars that Toyota kept for demonstration and press purposes, all 50 in the first shipment have sold already…

Why would I buy it?

Because you want a car that you can simply have huge amounts of fun in and know it is also likely to be stupidly reliable. It is a Yaris, after all.

Why wouldn’t I buy it?

Because you are mad. Or, maybe, because it is simply too tiny and niche for your needs, which let’s face it; it simply will be for most people… but if you have the money and need for a thoroughly brilliant and utterly focussed hot hatch, then why wouldn’t you?