Toyota has been spotted testing a new GR Yaris, but with an automatic gearbox as opposed the standard six speed manual box the car usually comes with. The company entered the car into the ‘Gazoo Racing Rally Challenge’ over in Japan this week.

The car is only a prototype at the moment and was driven by Shigeru Hayakawa, who is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Toyota. The car driven has new lightweight wheels, gravel tyres along and mud flaps. It is understood that it still uses the same 257bhp 1.6-litre engine as the road going car.

It is yet unknown if Toyota is planning on bringing an automatic GR Yaris to the UK and Europe, we have reached out to Toyota for a comment, we will update this post if we hear anything back.