Overview

If you think that slinking into traffic with a white Toyota Yaris will be ignored by its more performance-pretentious rivals, think again. Although it shares much of the silhouette of the Yaris shopping trolley, the GR is unmistakably from a different part of the factory.

In fact, it only shares some body bits and the model name – the rest is either top shelf components from other specialised Toyotas or is not shared with anything. Making something expressly for a low-volume car is expensive, very expensive.

Like the three-cylinder turbocharged 1.6-litre engine; the suspension; the chassis; the wheels; and lots more.

Now with optional eight-speed automatic transmission, it’s all the exciting things of the much-vaunted Yaris GR manual – yes, the one that sold out when launched and is still almost impossible to find – but more compliant in the suburbs and only a bit less exhilarating to pilot.

Sure, taking away the clutch pedal is unseemly – perhaps heretic – for a car built so definitely for the enthusiast market.

It’s bound to see some thrilling fun times at weekend club race events and down the track, literally, has so much potential to be a classic and with it, earn strong resale value.

So with all this potential, what could possibly be wrong?

Well, nothing wrong per se but it’s kinda small and noisy and uncomfortable to people (those who didn’t sign up for the tarmac rally fun fair ride) who want a smooth ride. It likes a drink, too, and the price tag of $62,990 (plus costs) – which is a modest $2500 more than the manual – isn’t reflective of the length of the car.

There are, by the way, two versions – GT and GTS. The test car is a GTS and comes in at $5000 more expensive than the slightly less well-equipped GT auto at $62,990 plus costs.

Price aside, the Yaris GR clearly has its own audience. Those who don’t fit the bill buy something else. Those who know what the Yaris GR is, know also that it could be potentially valuable come resale, and know that there’s nothing quite like it on the new-car market.

Driving Impressions

Listen to this thing roar. The mighty mouse of compact hatches and the one that sounds out on the club circuit as well as the (tempered) cruise through the hills.

It’s so perfectly built for tight roads that the car has an almost second nature of following the curves, hugging the bitumen and biting the apexes, all with a brap-brap exhaust and a hint of Michelin tyre squeal.

It is an addictive thing to drive and that’s just one of its alluring features. Take this home for the afternoon and it’s a reluctant car to hand back the next day.

Few cars – perhaps the exotics are included – can absorb the driver and make the route home, or maybe to work, pleasantly repeatable.

And the thing is that the Yaris GR is so accommodating and easy to drive and, with it, selfish. It’s not for passengers, it’s for the owner/driver to absorb into.

Going automatic prompted Toyota to up the power, so output is now 224kW (up from 200kW) and torque goes to 400Nm from 370Nm.

The test car’s triple-cylinder engine drives through an eight-speed “slush box” that has been honed by Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division for motorsport use, including testing by the car-maker’s TGR world rally team in differing road surfaces and even putting it into an actual event, the Japanese Rally Championship.

It’s also been tested in Gazoo’s racing rally challenge and Super Taikyu Series.

Much of the work – aside from squeezing two more cogs into the six-speed manual gearbox housing – is in software development that anticipates when gear shifting is necessary and in Toyota’s words “even before changes in vehicle behaviour occur, realising gear selection that reflects the driver’s intentions and, thus, leading to gear selection that is similar to how professional drivers shift gears.”

“The use of highly heat-resistant friction material in the automatic transmission’s gear-shift clutch and enhancements to the transmission’s control software have resulted in world-class gear-shifting speeds.”

To better fit the gearbox to the driver, Toyota raised the shift lever by 75 mm compared to the current Japanese market CVT-equipped GR Yaris RS placing it in the same position as the shift lever on the manual transmission version of the GR Yaris.  The hand brake was adapted for the automatic.

Then the manual mode of the shift sequence was changed so upshifts are achieved by pulling the lever, and downshifts by pushing the lever forward, similar to aircraft throttle functions with forward being faster, reversing that for retardation.

Inside, the Yaris GR auto’s dashboard is more vertical than its more pedestrian Yaris city car, with a control panel and monitor tilted 15 degrees toward the driver. This was based on the Super Taikyu Series and Japanese Rally Championship race cars with the aim for enhanced visibility and operability.

The position of switches was also changed both for sports events and also for ease during non-competitive driving.

Then the driving position was lowered by 25 mm and forward visibility improved by moving the rearview mirror to the top of the windshield and lowering the upper edge of the centre cluster by 50 mm.

The Yaris GR also gets “a professional race driver-inspired” 12.3-inch full-colour TFT gauge display with the automatic adding a transmission oil temperature display and a visual warning added to the gear position display.

This is designed to alert the driver so that downshifting may not be advisable because of excessive engine revs.

Toyota said that this change “reflects requests from drivers who used a prototype vehicle in the Japanese Rally Championship and whose comments included calls for easy-to-understand warnings even during competitions in which helmets are worn.”

Other features are user-preference settings for the electronic power steering, air conditioning and powertrain.

Outside, the Yaris GR automatic has changes including a split front bumper, and a lower grille with a thin and lightweight steel mesh. Both these allow easier repair and replacement  in the event of damage caused by flying objects (rocks) during competition or road debris (drink containers) when commuting.

For the same reasons of ease of repair and replacement, the tail-lights have been consolidated to avoid damage and improve visibility and the high-mount brake light is no longer integrated with the rear spoiler.

It’s probably academic, but Toyota claims an average of 9.1 litres per 100km giving it a range of 550km. The car is too much fun, however, to even think about trying to achieve that or even better it.

The GTS version of the Yaris GR auto gets BBS forged alloy 18-inch wheels fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, differing from the GT version’s alloy (not forged) Enkei wheels and Dunlop rubber.

There’s also red stitching in the GTS cabin, along with red-painted brake callipers abut that’s about it between the GT and GTS.

Toyota’s plain-Jane Yaris range needs servicing once a year but the GR has to go back twice, either six months or 10,000km. Each time the visit will cost $300 for the five-year period.

Toyota also has a five year warranty that can be extended to seven years.