It's been one of the most hyped cars of the last few years, the Toyota GR Yaris. But what exactly causes this hype and most importantly, is it worth the hype?

In the days I drove the GR Yaris, I never had this much intrest in a car from people, curious to know what it’s like, if they could see it,… Not even cars 4 or 5 times the price ever attracted this much attention but why exactly did the car get this kind of attention? It lies in 2 words

Homologation special

What? Well if you don’t know those words, let me educate you with a quick history lesson. Back in the days of Group B, GT1, etc when a manufacturer wanted to compete with a race car in racing, they had to make a road legal compliant version of the race car. This led to the birth of great icons like the Lancia Delta, 037, Audi Quattro,… It was a time of truly unique cars which enthusiasts loved because of their showing racing pedigree.
Fast forward today, the rules are generally more or less the same but the base car can be much less wild than what you see on the rally stages. Rules dictate that a minimum of 2500 cars of the competing model out of 25,000 for the entire range of the model had to be built in one year. No problem here because most of the rally cars are based on the smaller cars from a brand who tend to sell very well.

This brings us to Toyota and their Yaris. The new one is solely sold as a 5 door and it was clear from the start that to build a new competitive World Rally Car, the 5 door wasn’t going to make the cut. Having an extra pair of doors in the back means that you have to keep the roofline a lot higher towards the back than a normal 3 door would. The bodyshell really is a part you cannot go change for the rally car.
So Toyota went all out to create a 3 door Yaris built by their WRC team. Enter the GR Yaris, a 3 door Yaris that only really shares the headlamps, taillights, wing mirrors and antenna with the 5 door Yaris. Everything else? That’s completely new and bespoke. The roof sits 45 mm lower up front and 95 mm lower at the back, which helps with aerodynamics when you’re putting a big wing onto the car.

But as the WRC team was responsible for creating this car, it wasn’t going to be a 3 door copy of the 5 door.
For starters, it is powered by a 1.6L 3 cylinder engine. It doesn't look like much at first until you hear that it puts out 261 hp and 360 Nm making it not only the most powerful 3 cylinder out there but also the lightest 1.6L engine.
Quite the good start really, the engine revs very nicely and the torque comes in as a massive wave just before 3.000 rpm. Next thing you know, it takes off like a rocket and there’s a good reason for that. Because the GR Yaris has so many more party tricks.

Permanent 4 wheel drive

Yes, as opposed to other 4 wheel drive hot hatches which are FWD dominant and only send over some power to the rear when the front wheels can’t cope with the power. The GR Yaris actually has permanent 4 wheel drive which can control torque split through the dial inside. Normal mode gives you a 60:40 front-rear split, Sport gives you 30:70 and Track gives you an even 50:50 torque split. This gives you amazing control over the car and how it puts down its power but one thing’s for sure, it will put its power down reliably and spear off like a little rocket.
In terms of sound, everything you’re getting inside sounds very nice but it can’t distract you from the fact that it is artificially pumped inside the cabin. That’s sadly the effect of continuously tighter noise regulations.

Weight is an impressively low 1280 kg thanks to the use of a carbon fiber roof, aluminium doors, bonnet and hatch
Combine this with the optional circuit pack which includes Torsen locking diffs on front and rear axle that can also send power left or right wherever there’s more grip. Revised dampers and forged alloy wheels wrapped in sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4S’ complete the package built to offer the best experience out there.

So the data suggests a car that certainly is more than capable but what exactly is it like to drive?

Ypres Rally

To find out what this rally bred car is all about, we travelled to a corner in Belgium which holds rally deep in its veins. The area around Ypres is not only known as the battlefield of over 100 years ago but now also hosts the Ypres rally on which the locals are very proud of. As can be seen by the occasional big rally lights mounted on the bonnet of a regular Fiesta.

With cold weather conditions and limited grip on some of the stages, this really is the ultimate testing ground for the little Yaris. And this is where I started losing words on how to describe what the guys from Gazoo Racing have put together.
The GR Yaris seems to bring along an amazing sense of confidence in what it can do. Whether you’re pushing it out of a tight corner or when you’re putting 2 wheels off the road when cutting a longer corner, it never misbehaves if you don’t want it to misbehave. And even past the limits of the cold Pilot Sport 4S tires, it behaves nice and predictable.

Going through the various torque split modes you can really feel the behaviour of the car change which makes it both amazingly useable but also really, really fun. On surfaces with limited grip, the back end will step out driving in Sport mode but going back to track and it’ll do everything to keep the car hunkered down on the road.

The steering is great as far as electric steering goes, it still manages to capture good feedback from the front wheels. Turn-ing is sharp and thanks to its low weight it will fling itself around a bend sharply.
Suspension is firm but absorbs bumps so, so well. It never throws the car out of balance so it never really feels harsh. It always seems to want to bite the 4 wheels into the ground.
As for the gearbox, it’s this mechanical feeling gearbox with a good short throw (it actually reminds me of a GT4). It’s also raised by 50 mm compared to the one on the standard Yaris so it sits better in your hand.

Hit and miss cabin

Inside the cabin is very simple. Nice and analogue dials with a simple info screen in between. A good, round steering wheel plus very nice and supportive seats. That’s all good here. Materials are cheap and simple but they are formed in an elegant way.

Now back to those seats, as nice as they are. They sit way too high. I’m 1m82 and I’m close to hitting the roof. Putting on a helmet for a trackday would be a big nope. It definitely needs a lower seating position.
Secondly, that rear view mirror. What’s it actually for? Thanks to the low roof line the rear window is very small so you can’t see much out of it but yet they fitted it with this huge mirror that creates a blind spot in front of the car.

But then again it has a lot of creature comforts, Apple CarPlay, radar cruise control, lane keep assist, heated seats plus steering wheel and a reversing camera. You wouldn’t expect all this in such a tiny package .

So awesome and so refreshing

The Toyota GR Yaris is such a blast to drive, it looks the part with its proper wide fenders and low roof and finds grip in places there really isn’t. I still feel like words can’t describe well enough how good this car really is.
Then there’s the price. At just under 37.000€ it’s priced very competitively for what it offers and can do. Plus, being a Toyota it should still be pretty reliable as well.
But do get yourself the 2000€ optional circuit pack because it really is a must in this car.

There’s an awful lot of development gone into this car and it’s a bit sad that the rally car for which the GR Yaris was built, will never actually compete. Toyota intended to race the new WRC Yaris in this year’s season but due to the pandemic outburst, development was delayed and the car wasn’t ready in time. So the current WRC Yaris continues to compete in this season and after this season, a whole new set of regulations will come in regarding spaceframes,…

But that doesn’t mean this car is a waste. No, Toyota made exactly what everyone was waiting on for such a long time. A truly pure enthusiast’s car feels so refreshing in these times and we’d love to see more cars built this way.

Toyota GR Yaris Review: A Refreshing Breath