Toyota has announced official details of its first proper hot hatch in decades, the 2020 Toyota GR Yaris.

THIS IS THE most expensive and powerful Yaris you’ll ever be able to buy.

The three-door widebody homologation of the successful Yaris WRC car created for Toyota’s revival in rally motorsport, the GR Yaris is a bespoke build unlike many hot hatches that simply add to the base model.

It houses a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine producing a whopping 192kW of power and 360Nm of torque through a six-speed manual transmission to all four wheels. Weighing just 1280kg and producing a power-to-weight ratio of 150kW per tonne, it is more powerful than hot hatches in the class above it.

It will arrive in Australia later this year, and while pricing is yet to be announced, we’d expect this expensive development to cost near $50,000. That’s a lot of dosh compared to a rival like the Fiesta ST, but this is another beast entirely.

Toyota says its WRC partner, Tommi Mäkinen Racing, was behind some of the development.

“The WRC-skilled team of designers and engineers at Tommi Mäkinen Racing focused on perfecting the aerodynamics, weight distribution and lightweight of the new car – the three qualities essential to achieving the best performance and drivability.

“The three-door body shell is made from lightweight materials including carbon-fibre polymer and aluminium, to deliver an impressive power-to-weight ratio.

“The new platform allows for a wider rear track and new double-wishbone rear suspension system. The team also devised reinforcements beneath the side members to ensure the suspension’s performance potential can be realised.

“To ensure the plans worked in practice, the GR Yaris was put to the test by professional race and rally drivers during the development program.”

It rides on 18-inch lightweight alloy wheels with Dunlop SP Sport MAXX050 225/40 rubber. There is unique sports suspension on the McPherson front and torsion beam double-wishbone rear suspension setups.

Toyota dubs the all-wheel drive system ‘GR-FOUR AWD’. It has a high-response coupling with different gear ratios on the front and rear diffs, which allows for a theoretical range of front/rear torque balance from 100:0 (full front-wheel drive) to 0:100 (full rear-wheel drive).

It is speed limited to 230km/h and will reach 100km/h from a standstill in under five and a half seconds.

All we need now is pricing and availability from Toyota Australia. Or is this likely to be too expensive a hot hatch?

YARIS GR SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE

 

Type

3 in-line cylinders

Valve mechanism

DOHC 12-valve with VVT-i

Fuel system

D4S – direct & indirect injection

Supercharging

Single-scroll turbo

Displacement (cm3)

1,618

Bore x stroke (mm)

87.5 X 89.7

Compression ratio

10.5:1

Max. power (kW)

192

-Max. torque  (Nm)

360

Emissions level

Euro 6d Temp

 

TRANSMISSION

GR-FOUR 4WD system

Type

Manual 6

 

PERFORMANCE

 

Power to weight ratio (kg/kW)

6.7

Max. speed (km/h)

230 (electronically limited)

 

CHASSIS

 

Front suspension

MacPherson

Rear suspension

Double wishbone

Steering

Rack & pinion, electric power steering

Min. turning circle (m)

10.8

Brakes

 

Front (diameter mm)

Ventilated disc (356)
4pot fixed calliper

Rear (diameter mm)

Ventilated disc (297)
2-pot fixed calliper

Tyres

Dunlop SP Sport MAXX050

– dimension

225/40 R 18

 

EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS (mm)

 

Overall length

3,995

Overall width

1,805

Overall height

1,460

Wheelbase

2,558

Front track

1,530

Rear track

1,560

 

WEIGHT (kg)

 

Kerb weight (without driver)

1,280

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Alex Rae

Alex Rae brings almost two decades’ experience, previously working at publications including Wheels, WhichCar, Drive/Fairfax, Carsales.com.au, AMC, Just Cars, and more.

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