UK’s Fastest Toyota GR Yaris Packs 500bhp And Nissan GT-R Brakes

It’s safe to say that the standard Toyota GR Yaris is no slow-poke, packing an impressive 257bhp in Europe and up to 268bhp in some markets like Australia and Japan. That hasn’t stopped UK-based Severn Valley Motorsport from pushing its factory-fitted 1.6-litre three-cylinder engine to 420bhp (or 500bhp on race fuel), and claiming it’s the fastest GR Yaris in the UK.

Pushing its engine to new heights has required a plethora of performance upgrades; the most crucial being a custom hybrid turbocharger developed by SVM themselves. As well as this, the hardcore GR Yaris has been kitted out with a custom SVM exhaust, Venturi carbon intake, a custom breather system and an ECU developed by Bailey Performance to fine-tune its fuel delivery.

The GR Yaris is also rocking an uprated BC suspension setup, which is constantly being tweaked given this car’s job as a development model for the tuning company. Perhaps the cherry on top of this set-up, though, is the inclusion of massive 400mm diameter carbon ceramic brakes from the one-and-only Nissan GT-R R35, which caused SVM a giant headache to fit.

The sheer size of the brakes meant the team had to make their own brackets for mounting the callipers. It’s one of the most extreme braking setups for a car of this size and weight we’ve seen, but should provide the stopping power necessary given the power figures.

It sounds good too – three-cylinder engines can be a challenge to get right, but the guys at SVM have spent a lot of time tweaking the exhaust system and giving it a tasteful burble. It runs a 100-cell sports cat which keeps this extreme hot-hatch fully road legal.

Youtuber Hampshirephoto got the opportunity to walk around the modified GR Yaris alongside a representative from SVM for himself, and we are definitely jealous. We much prefer the direction they’ve taken with this GR Yaris, against Toyota’s recent announcement of an eight-speed automatic version of the GR Yaris.