Stunning Morizo RR turns GR Yaris up to 11

Akio Toyoda loved racing a GR at N24 so much, he commissioned a road-legal tribute...

By Matt Bird / Friday, 9 January 2026 / Loading comments

Gazoo Racing is often at pains to point out how intrinsic motorsport is to its road car development (probably as it’s a very cool boast), and this might be the most extreme interpretation of that belief yet. The GR Yaris Morizo RR has benefitted from the direct input of Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda and his experience racing a Yaris at last year’s N24, creating a car ‘exceptional for its Nürburgring-cultivated delivery of car-driver unity for a high level of driver-vehicle interaction.’ Right.

The wing feels like the obvious thing to talk about, more extreme even than the one seen on the recent Aero Pack and seemingly straight from the Toyota Gazoo Rookie Racing (the team that fielded the N24 car) parts cupboard. Moreover, thanks to the additional downforce it brings, the GR’s steering and suspension have been reworked to take advantage; Toyota says the damping now allows the tyres ‘to firmly follow even highly uneven road surfaces’ like you-know-where. So perhaps this will be a Golf Clubsport S style makeover, plush and accommodating, rather than as raw and rowdy as it looks. Whatever the case, Toyota reckons a Morizo RR ‘generates an overflow of spontaneous smiles, and enables experiencing an extraordinary sense of exhilaration.’ Which sounds like great news to us. Why don’t more cars promise an overflow of spontaneous smiles?

The makeover also means a Morizo drive mode, replacing the previous Gravel setting. But park any hopes of a crazy rear-biased setting with only a nominal torque allocation for the front; it sets the distribution at 50:50, where gravel was 53:47. So it won’t make a huge amount of difference to the driving, but a Morizo drive mode does sound good.

Now, while you might expect Master Driver Toyoda to favour a manual GR, this is a car that pays tribute to its racing achievements (where he raced the #109 car for 15 laps). As that Yaris used the eight-speed auto, so will all 200 examples of this RR. Apparently Toyoda credited the eight-speed automatic transmission with ‘enabling him to conquer’ his stints. And you don’t argue with the boss, so auto it is. Not that the Morizo is an entirely standard auto, however, thanks to the introduction of larger paddles and switches on the new suede wheel inspired by rallying. Try to resist fiddling with those the entire time.

Additional Morizo influence can be seen in the yellow calipers and matching accents inside, because it’s his favourite colour. Nothing more complicated than that. Same for the ‘Gravel Khaki’ paint, a bluey-greeny-grey that looks better than we’ve made it sound - especially with the gold wheels and carbon bonnet. Akio Toyoda likes it, so Toyota makes it. Good job he makes smart decisions…

Add all that together with a smattering of badges and plaques and you have one very desirable GR special edition. A bit like all the GR special editions, in fact. And this time around, you might even be able to get one: half of the Morizos will stay in Japan, but the other hundred will go to ‘certain European markets’, which little old Blighty will almost certainly be in contention for, given our obsession with the Yaris. The Rovanpera and Ogier Editions made it here, after all. Expect to learn more about Morizos in Europe later in ‘26 - and download the GR app in anticipation, because that’s how you’ll apply to get one.