A week after it confirmed UK pricing for the GR Yaris, Toyota has dispatched an email to potential buyers stating that on Friday 13th, the order books will officially open. That means you can stroll into a dealership and sign on the dotted line to secure one of the £29,995 specials delivered in around eight months - although we’d hedge that you’ll need to set an early alarm to ensure that. Expect demand for the Gazzo Racing-tuned 260hp WRC homologation three-door to be very high.
Rightfully so, of course, because Toyota’s bespoke-platformed all-wheel drive puppy has the potential to be one of the finest driver’s cars on sale from any segment. The combination of a rorty four-pot motor, torque-juggling driveline and tiny wheelbase points to some pretty interesting handling attributes. And Toyota certainly knows how to tune excellent handling machines; see the longstanding driver’s favourite GT86 as a prime example. Don’t expect many to be waiting for a demonstrator before they hand over the cash.
Original story: 05/03/2020
We're one step closer to the arrival of Toyota's steroidal GR Yaris in the UK thanks to the opening of order books, alongside the announcement that the car will cost from £29,995. Better still, the Japanese manufacturer has confirmed the Yaris's uprated Circuit Pack - which does exactly what it says on the tin - costs a pretty competitive £33,495. Given the potential of that base, it's fair to say we can't bloody wait.
You'll already know the details, but forgive us for running through them again, because they're awesome. The GR Yaris is a proper WRC homologation machine, launched in conjunction with Toyota's follow-up campaign to last year's driver's title winning Yaris. The new car gets a sophisticated all-wheel drive system with widened tracks hidden beneath blistered arches, created by mating the company's TNGA architecture with its small car GA-B base. The result is powered by 1.6-litre turbocharged engine tuned to develop 260hp and 265lb ft of torque. It sprints to 62mph in less than 5.5 seconds.
That technical make-up alone is sufficient to have you ogling the Toyota customer site, but it's the thought that the 2020 hatch was co-developed by GR and Tommi Makinen Racing - and shares many components with Toyota's actual competition machine - that makes it possibly the coolest hatch in the world right now. And, let's not forget, it re-opens a lineage of homologation WRC cars that most of us thought to be dead forever with the extinction of competition-spec Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Evos.
So while that near £30k starting price places it amongst larger and more potent hot hatches such as the RS Megane and Civic Type R, the Toyota has genuine motorsport kudos to spare. Particularly in Circuit Pack trim, where two torsen limited-slip diffs - one for each axle - are mated with uprated suspension and Michelin PS4 boots.
Orders are no doubt already beginning to fly in, before production begins so the first cars can arrive on UK roads in November. Just in time for proper WRC weather.
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