[Auto / Moto] Toyota GR Yaris test: the best sports car in the world?

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261 horsepower, a manual gearbox and all-wheel drive for a city car. The GR Yaris is probably the ultimate sports car of our time. And perhaps the ultimate “rally car” of our era.

The machine opposite had a thousand reasons for not seeing the light of day. Think about increasingly stringent emissions standards. At the cost of developing a new engine. Or the relaxation of homologation constraints in rallying by 2022.

However, in some Japanese office, Mr. Akio Toyoda, CEO of the automotive giant, gave the green light to the production of 25,000 copies of this heir to the Lancia Delta HF, Ford Escort Cosworth, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Subaru Impreza GT and other Toyota Celica GT-Four.

The only version of the Yaris with 3-doors , this GR only shares three exterior elements with its general public version: the optics, the mirrors and the “shark” antenna closing the roof. In molded carbon, it is also lowered by 9 cm in its rear part , reducing drag and clearing the rear spoiler. The difference with the (excellent) 116h is such that this Yaris GR is assembled in Motomashi, Japan, rather than in Valenciennes. The same production line once gave birth to the Lexus LFA, a breathtakingly sounding V10 supercar.

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Technical sheet
Unlike many current pseudo-sports, the interior of the machine is more ... normal . Unsurprisingly, we find the dashboard of the Yaris hybrid. The steering wheel and headrests bear the words “Gazoo Racing” and a small plate located on the central console certifies the origin of the machine. Pleasant to the eye and to the touch, the semi-bucket seats do not offer sufficient lateral supportwith regard to the lateral Gs that the passengers can collect. At the front, the driver and his co-driver are also sitting a bit high. Difficult to access, the rear seats are penalized by the falling pavilion: plan for stiff necks for anyone measuring more than 1.70 meters, even if the knees have an honorable space. With its sluggishness and 16-BIT console graphics, the infotainment screen isn't this Yaris' strong point either. Disclosure: This is the last nasty remark in this article.