Thursday 5th December 2013

Toyota Yaris WRC car in development

Can we see it in a Castrol livery?

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The above car is not the Yaris WRC, don't worry. It's the Yaris R1, built by Toyota Motorsport in Germany and packing a mighty 99hp. But it illustrates the point of a Yaris rally car for now.

This with big arches and a huge wing please

The news of Toyota's possible return to the WRC has come through our colleagues at Motorsport News and then Autocar. With VW's recent success and Hyundai's return, perhaps top-level rallying is becoming an appealing prospect to manufacturers once again. A WRC-spec 1.6-litre Yaris is being built now as a 'toe-in-the-water' exercise according to Autocar, with a return to world rallying only a possibility at this stage.

But look at the Toyota rallying back catalogue. The Celica GT-Four and Corolla WRC enjoyed decent success back in the 90s as well as just looking damn cool. And if the response to our recent PH Heroes piece on the Celica is anything to go by, that car's rallying exploits influenced many buying decisions. Are you listening Toyota?

Actually, just like this in fact

Toyota Motorsport is of course better known as TMG, responsible for the recently unveiled GT86 R3 and that wonderfully mad Sport 650 concept. Its only comment so far has been that the project is a 'pretty low-key programme, run in order for us to gain experience of the car'. Testing is scheduled to start in 2014 sometime.

Now we all know a popular rally car is as much about how it looks as how successful it is. So if Toyota could make it look something like the Hybrid-R and get a rally win or two, it could well have another WRC legend on its hands. Let's wait and see.

[Source: Motorsport News via Autocar]

[BelperJim]

I thought Toyota were banned from the WRC? Or was that some wildly overblown rumor I heard?

[anonymous-user]

It seems that WRC might be starting to get more interesting with the new teams that are starting! They may have downsized engines now, but I bet thet are not that slower than the old group B's

[Janesy B]

BelperJim said:

I thought Toyota were banned from the WRC? Or was that some wildly overblown rumor I heard?

Was 12 months and that was about 20 years ago?

[Rouleur]

BelperJim said:

I thought Toyota were banned from the WRC? Or was that some wildly overblown rumor I heard?

That was nearly 20 years ago, and for only 12 months!

[Krikkit]

There was an article in the latest Racecar Engineering about Toyota developing a WRC engine, so that would back up this story too.

[300bhp/ton]

What a dull car to make a rally car out of. No wonder WRC continues to get more and more boring. Bring back the old days I say!

[Oz83]

The problem is that the days of homologation specials and road going versions of actual rally cars are long gone. Ok so the Polo just won the WRC. What can we buy? A Polo Gti with a sticker kit.

A 4 wheel drive, wide arched, 300bhp Yaris from your local Toyota dealer. In your dreams.

More manufacturers are needed to make rallying more interesting though. If they can make it viable then great!

[chrisw666]

300bhp/ton said:

What a dull car to make a rally car out of. No wonder WRC continues to get more and more boring. Bring back the old days I say!

Isn't that the point of WRC? Normal hatchbacks with powerful engines? BTCC is the same.

[skyrover]

chrisw666 said:

Isn't that the point of WRC? Normal hatchbacks with powerful engines? BTCC is the same.

GT-86 would have been a better starting point IMO

[dublet]

BelperJim said:

I thought Toyota were banned from the WRC? Or was that some wildly overblown rumor I heard?

Way to keep up with the latest news. Have you heard of this Loeb guy? He's supposedly making waves in WRC.

Anyway, more rally cars please! Always was disappointing that there was no 4WD version of the Corolla. Would've been lots of fun. Bring back the homologation requirements, I say!

skyrover said:

GT-86 would have been a better starting point IMO

Another one who keeps up with the news.
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...

[Andy ap]

WHAT...THE....fk, whats next the Jazz Wrc and the Nissan Micra and Note Wrc (actually thats not as silly as it sounds) Will Suzuki show up with an Alto WRC.

What the hell is going on it used to be turbo 2.0 four/five door saloons it's now stty hatchback shopping trolleys. The DS3's and wales rally gb last month were crap the old MK1 and MK2 escorts were noticably faster.

Still i suppose i should praise the effort.

[skyrover]

dublet said:

skyrover said:

GT-86 would have been a better starting point IMO

Another one who keeps up with the news.
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...

Hey what can I say...

[300bhp/ton]

chrisw666 said:

300bhp/ton said:

What a dull car to make a rally car out of. No wonder WRC continues to get more and more boring. Bring back the old days I say!

Isn't that the point of WRC? Normal hatchbacks with powerful engines? BTCC is the same.

Well I don't know if it is the point of WRC or not. But it makes for a mere shadow of what rallying used to be. And to be quite frank, BTCC is hardly the most exciting of racing these days, and what there is has little to do with the look of the actual cars.

[blackchrome917]

Does anyone else feel that super-mini WRC cars are not as interesting as the Impreza or Audi quattro era from the past?

I know the cars are 300+ bhp and four wheel drive, but they still look like they belong in the village hall car park during a WI meeting!

[300bhp/ton]

blackchrome917 said:

Does anyone else feel that super-mini WRC cars are not as interesting as the Impreza or Audi quattro era from the past?

I know the cars are 300+ bhp and four wheel drive, but they still look like they belong in the village hall car park during a WI meeting!

+1

Ugly, dull and boring is what they are. And bear no actual mechanical resemblance to production models, so seeing a rally Yaris makes me in no way want to own a Yaris. On the flip side I'm an Impreza Turbo owner and I own it because I used to watch them rallying.

[JohnoVR6]

Krikkit said:

There was an article in the latest Racecar Engineering about Toyota developing a WRC engine, so that would back up this story too.

The GRE will be the one that makes it in to the Yaris. Except it won't be this generation Yaris thats used in WRC, TMG are waiting on the next generation one before homologating it.

[Alex Langheck]

Being slightly pedantic – Toyota, the Manufacturer weren’t actually banned for 12 months, but TTE (Toyota Team Europe) were banned. Grifone and Toyota Team Sweden continued running Celicas in the WRC.

Homologation specials are never coming back – the Manufacturers actually asked for the WRCar formula – as the old rules were expensive.

[carl_w]

Rouleur said:

That was nearly 20 years ago, and for only 12 months!

Plus the team principal of the team that was banned is now President of the FIA, so no issues on that front.

[renaultgeek]

why would you use a big heavy saloon when you can use a lightweight shopping cart, they're downsizing the engines, of course they downsize the car with it.

[Alex Langheck]

carl_w said:

Rouleur said:

That was nearly 20 years ago, and for only 12 months!

Plus the team principal of the team that was banned is now President of the FIA, so no issues on that front.

Hmm, are you sure about that?
The late Ove Andersson was the boss of TTE, and was unaware of the cheating.
Current FiA President Jean Todt was at Ferrari at the time of the turbo-gate in 1995.