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This is the new Toyota GR Yaris. Unveiled at Tokyo Auto Salon 2020, it’s the company’s latest flagship hot hatchback, designed to give Toyota a competitive advantage in the World Rally Championship, where it is locked in battle with Korean rival Hyundai. The GR Yaris available to pre-order now in Japan, with UK sales expected to start in the second half of 2020.
The GR Yaris was developed collaboratively by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Tommi Mäkinen Racing, Toyota’s partner in the WRC. It features a range of motorsport-derived design features, such as an all-new 257bhp turbocharged three-cylinder engine, a dedicated two-door platform and a unique chassis and suspension setup.
The GR Yaris is the first 'homologation special' produced for a generation, picking up where nineties rally legends such as the Celica GT-Four, Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution left off. In the nineties, rally rules forced manufacturers to build thousands of special road cars that were closely linked to the competition vehicles, but modern-day regulations, introduced in 1997, removed this requirement.
The GR Yaris is powered by a motorsport-derived turbocharged 1.6-litre three-cylinder engine which, for the UK market, develops 257bhp and 360Nm of torque – although Japanese buyers get a more potent version of the same unit, which produces 268bhp and 370Nm of torque. Toyota says the engine gives the UK market GR Yaris a 0–62mph time of “less than 5.5 seconds” and an electronically limited top speed of 143mph.
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