Gazoo Racing – if you’ve never heard of them they are Toyota’s version of RS and AMG and how they related to Audi and Mercedes, it’s a dedicated team within a car company which takes sometimes seemingly ordinary cars and makes them, well less ordinary. A few years ago, in 2018 Gazoo Racing took to work on the last generation of the Yaris, with the ‘Yaris GRMN’ but since then Toyota has launched a new Yaris and Gazoo Racing has been busy making a new fast version.
The new Toyota GR Yaris was announced back in January at the ‘Tokyo Auto Salon’ and it caused a bit of a stir online shortly afterwards, due to its rally inspired looks, powerful engine and four wheel drive system.
“While the new GR Supra is a sports car developed through track racing, the GR Yaris has been devised through our participation in rallies – something that many of our fans have been waiting for.”
Shigeki Tomoyama – Gazoo Racing boss
As mentioned in the quote, the other current car Gazoo Racing has worked on is the GR Supra, a hardened and faster version of the new Supra sports car.
The new GR Yaris has a 1.6-litre turbocharged and supercharged 3-cylinder engine, which produces 257bhp.Toyota has said the car manages to get from 0-60 in 5.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 143mph, which is electronically limited.
Toyota will be offering two versions of the GR Yaris when it goes on sale later this year in November, the entry-level GR Yaris will be priced at £29,995 and the upgraded GR Yaris Circuit Pack will be £33,495.
Source: Toyota
