Toyota May Be Doing A ‘Lancer Evo’ With The Yaris
Right now Toyota is a bringer of good things to petrolheads. The GT86 is getting a second generation, the Supra is – forget the haters – a damn fine thing to drive across a deserted Welsh county, and it doesn’t seem too long ago that it gave us the bonkers supercharged Yaris GRMN.
Now there’s another hot Yaris coming, and if the teaser is any guide it’s going to have the kind of swollen, rally-spec wheel arches that would give even the most ardent Toyota-basher physical issues of a deeply personal nature. Toyota Europe’s Twitter account has published a shot of part of the rear of something it’s calling the Yaris GR-4. And we’re excited.
The idea of being excited about a Yaris was almost alien before the arrival of the GRMN. A brief and excellent dalliance with a 1.5-litre T-Sport version back in the early 2000s was all that separated the dependable, safe and quiet Yaris from a mid-priced steam iron. It did a job, mainly for old people, and no one else really took any notice. The GRMN changed everything.
Toyota seems to have recognised that and ramped-up its efforts on the spicy side. There will be three grades of ‘performance’ Yaris when the new one comes out, from the GR Sport – essentially a trim exercise – to a new GRMN and then this. We can only hope that the GR-4 is to the Yaris what the Evo and WRX STI were to the Lancer and Impreza.
The initial signs are excellent. The car in the picture wears GRMN-spec camouflage and kicks out a fabulously oversized wheel arch that screams WRC homologation special. While we acknowledge that the 4 in its name could mean four-cylinder, and that it can’t be easy to fit four-wheel drive into a supermini (although Suzuki does it with the Swift), the fact that the car will make its debut at Rally Australia later this month gives us reason to hope that this is a legend in the making.
Comments
Oh hell yeah
Can’t wait
Toyota is going hard. I’m glad they haven’t forgotten about sports cars like some Japanese companies nowadays
And by some Japanese companies I mean the brand responsible for the Evo…..the “M” word
Still hoping IDx Nismo to make it into production one day… Most likely not gonna happen…
Big thumbs up !
Keep it going Toyota
OH YES!
And then they’ll kill it and bring it back as a high riding electric SUV/crossover
I’ve been waiting for this comment…. Guess I was the late one here
First thing I read was ‘lancer evo’ my heart jumped
Just doing the work Mitsubishi was supposed to do…
A small car doesnt need much to scoot. A 1.5T with 200hp would do it. Call it the Yaris TRD though.
Imagine a lightweight 300hp Yaris…
just imagine…
but probably won’t happen, most I’m guessing is 260hp.
260hp would even be amazing in a car this small. The Pulsar GTIR is faster than a modern sti with 220hp simply due to it’s much less weight.