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The first truly great car of the decade

Amazing newToyota blitzesevery rival

2020’S BEST HOT HATCHNEW GR YARIS IS…

HOW IT COMPARES TO THE BEST OF THE REST

Possibly the most exciting addition to the hot hatchback market in a decade. Wickedly purposeful, and

wonderfully evocative of fast 4x4s of old.

TOYOTA GR YARIS 2020 UK REVIEW

he new Toyota GR Yaris has actually been coming for even longer than most of us may realise.

While this car has had an extensively previewed gestation, it’s the first ground-up performance car that Toyota has developed ‘all on its own’ in some twenty years. By which is meant ‘without the help of another dedicated car-maker,’ of course. Because believe me, to have made a hot hatchback this good, Toyota must have had quite a lot of help from some very clever people who have been spending a lot of weekends with messrs Makinen, Meeke, Tanak and Latvala.

So, now that we’ve driven it – extensively, on a mix of UK roads and on track, and in its most alluringly specialized mechanical specification, we should add – we can at last confirm what matters most: that the hubbub of anticipation might actually have undersold the GR Yaris. This is a wonderfully exciting, amazingly capable and strangely evocative drivers’ car, and a very rare and special hot hatchback indeed. ◊

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TOYOTA GR YARIS 2 0 2 0 R E V I E W

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WH

AT

IS

IT? ∆ First, we’d better define precisely why

the GR Yaris exists. If the prospect of this 257bhp, four-wheel drive supermini takes you back, it’s not by accident. The GR Yaris is the closest thing we’ve seen in some thirty years to a downsized rally homologation special; a modern MG Metro 6R4 or Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, it may seem.

It certainly has the unmistakable visual presence of those cars, with its dramatically swollen wheelarches and air intakes – and the association will do the Toyota no harm whatsoever. But that’s not actually what it is at all. Rather than commissioning a very limited production run of road cars, built out-of-house, in order to legitimize a World Rally Championship campaign, Toyota did the reverse when it sewed the seed for this car back in 2015.

It invested in a new motorsport division (Gazoo Racing) and a top-level rallying program with the specific intention of applying what it might learn into better

series-production performance cars that it would make itself – and which might therefore be able to influence production Toyotas more widely for years afterwards.

In an attempt to radically shift the market perception of the Toyota brand, then, boss Akio Toyoda would accept nothing less than such a bold, radical – and undoubtedly expensive – strategy; which actually makes this a fascinating anti-homologation car – of a sort.

If you disqualify the GR Supra produced two years ago as many do because of its shared BMW underpinnings, and the last-gen Yaris GRMN as the appetite-testing exercise it so clearly was, the GR Yaris is the first opportunity that Toyota has had to show the world how seriously it intends to take its mission. It is not an opportunity squandered. ◊

TECHNICAL SPECSModel tested: Toyota GR Yaris Circuit Pack Price: £33,495 Price as tested: £33,495 Engine: 3 cyls inline, 1618cc, turbo petrol Transmission: 6-spd manual; 4WD; Torsen LSDs front and rear (opt).

POWER257bhp

TORQUE266lb ft

0-62MPH5.5sec

TOP SPEED143mph (limited)

KERB WEIGHT (DIN)1310kg

FUEL ECONOMY34.3mpg

CO2186g/km

BIK TAX BAND37%

TOYOTA GR YARIS 2 0 2 0 R E V I E W

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∆ The very idea of this car promises big. It is a compact, supermini-sized package with an engine and drivetrain that lift it way out of the hot supermini niche, and actually place it on a par with an Audi S3 or VW Golf R for power-to-weight ratio. It has a unique chassis that’s a hybrid of Toyota’s GA-B and –C platforms, and that’s been strengthened and reinforced all over the place. It has lightweight aluminium and carbonfibre-composite panels, and all-independent suspension and aerodynamics that have been developed with the help of designers and engineers from Toyota’s WRC team.

It also has a manual gearbox; nothing less than the most powerful three-cylinder engine in any production vehicle in the world; and the first proprietary four-wheel drive system that Toyota has developed for a road car in two decades, which can be set for a rear-biased torque distribution and augmented with proper ‘Torsen’ limited-slip differentials for both axles as you prefer. If that doesn’t excite you, folks? Well, I’m not sure any modern hot hatchback will.

Then again, even if it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure the driving experience would. The GR Yaris is of a performance breed that you might have unconsciously consigned to history.

It’s redolent of a time before seeking a thrill out on the public road became so socially toxic. When our roads were quieter, and the affordable performance cars we had to enjoy on them – from Delta Integrales to fast Imprezas and Lancer Evos – wore dynamic qualities like hard-hitting mid-range performance, any-weather traction and unconditional handling stability as badges of honour, and their affordable pricetags just as proudly.

That doesn’t make the GR Yaris the most modern-feeling of vehicle concepts, granted. But boy, is it ever good. Improbably fast and composed over the ground, with a stability and simple drivability that make it indecently easy to carry speed in.

And yet it’s also characterful, involving and mechanically tactile, with a chassis ready to liven up underneath you just enough when the opportunity presents. It’s a car that just begs to be driven quickly, in other words – and the more you’re prepared to explore how quickly it’ll go, the better it gets.

And what makes all of the above seem deliciously improbable is the fact that it’s a Toyota Yaris; although not much of one. The only body components

WH

AT

’S IT

LIK

E?

that it shares with a regular Yaris are its lights, door mirrors and roof aerial. The car’s roofline has its own profile and sits some 45mm lower to the ground, so you duck your head ever so slightly on the way in. The driving position isn’t so different from that of the regular supermini, though: you sit high at the controls but really well supported in a good-sized sports seat, with decent passenger space and adjustment range for the controls even for taller drivers.

The car’s instruments have a few new digital modes, but down on the transmission tunnel is where the chief differences are. In place of the regular Yaris’ electronic handbrake you’ll find a manual one with an old-fashioned lever; if you pull it on while the car’s moving, the four-wheel drive system automatically disconnects the rear halfshafts (which might be my favourite technical feature about the whole car). Meanwhile, Toyota has also moved the gearshift console upwards and forwards for more intuitive access, and next to it you’ll find the GR’s rotary drive mode selector.

It defaults to ‘normal’ mode, in which the clutch-based driveline gives you a 60:40 front-to-rear torque split. Tweak it to the right and you get ‘track’ mode, which moves the default torque bias to 50:50. But rotate it to the left and, in ‘sport’ mode, you get a 30:70 split. It’s not a lockable torque split, so that lion’s share of torque only stays at the rear contact patches until the front ones begin to spin up; but it does have an influence over the way the GR Yaris handles. ◊

TOYOTA YARIS GR 2 0 2 0 R E V I E W

❝Here is a Toyota ready

to hold your imagination like few performance

cars of the price❞

TOYOTA GR YARIS 2 0 2 0 R E V I E W

AUTOCA R .CO.UK

Here is a Toyota quite clearly ready to hold your imagination like few performance cars of the price. Even at this early stage, I wouldn’t be afraid to call it a landmark car. If there are more GR models like it in the pipeline, it could well be the start of an era every bit as transformative for Toyota’s reputation among car enthusiasts as Akio Toyoda intended.

It’s not cheap; UK prices start at a whisker under £30,000, rising to £33,500 for a ‘Circuit Pack’ car, and so a fully loaded one might cost you 50 per cent more than you expect to pay for a hot supermini. But the GR Yaris so plainly isn’t just another go-faster shopping car.

Whatever the badge on its rump may suggest, it’s actually the kind of extra-special, rare-groove performance machine that comes along very rarely indeed. The commitment, effort, skill and focus it represents simply demands the attention of proper petrolheads.

We’ll be giving it plenty more attention yet, by the way; reporting in greater detail on the car and its driving experience, and directly comparing it with rivals. But we needn’t wait a moment longer to declare that the GR Yaris a new pint-sized champion among affordable, road-going, any-weather drivers’ cars. It’s every bit as good to drive as you might have hoped it would be. Honestly, it’s that good and then some.

SH

OU

LD

I B

UY

ON

E?

TOYOTA YARIS GR 2 0 2 0 R E V I E W

∆ The car’s performance is a lot more serious than you might imagine any supermini – those ‘80s homologation legends notwithstanding – could ever be. The three-cylinder engine sounds vocally meek-and-mild at first; a bit like an angry Daihatsu Charade with a loud-hailer. You warm to its charms, though – particularly once you’ve discovered how keenly it responds to throttle inputs, how indefatigably boosty it feels through the mid-range, and how freely it revs beyond 5000rpm. And the resulting potential for roll-on acceleration? I’d swear it feels every bit as potent as early Subaru Impreza Turbos did, only without the laggy pause for intake of breath of the old Scoob. It’s a giggle to say the very least.

The medium-heavy, alluringly tactile shift quality is surprisingly ‘Scoobyish’ too; likewise the progressive, composed-yet-supple way it rides and handles at pace. There was just a little bit of bite about our test car’s low-speed ride (Toyota’s optional Circuit Pack, as fitted, adds stiffer springs, dampers and roll bars, as well as lightweight forged 18in alloy wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and the aforementioned Torsen slippy diffs front and rear), but it becomes pleasingly fluent at cross-country speeds. Most importantly, there isn’t a hint of the occasionally hyperactive vertical jiggle over testing roads that you can find in an equivalent fast Ford, say. You just get really authoritative underlying body control blanketed by an initial absorbency that’s as reassuring as it is pleasingly pragmatic to unearth.

With steering that’s only medium-paced and a hint of moderation about the suspension tuning, the car doesn’t pivot and swivel on turn-in quite like some hot hatchbacks. It might give back just a little bit more reassuring weight and feel through its slightly muted steering, too. It has really striking mid-corner agility, however, changing direction energetically once it’s committed to a bend, and rolling only enough to communicate lateral load clearly.

The four-wheel drive system isn’t there to allow the car to do an impression of a rear-driven two-seater, clearly; even in sport mode, it only gently straightens the car’s cornering attitude with power rather than rotating it towards the inner verge. Even so, it allows you to pour on power before you pass an apex - waiting just an instant as the boost builds, the diffs bite in, and the car catapults itself viscerally inwards and onwards like a fast 4x4 of old. And the way it does so is as compelling a phenomenon as any driver’s car at this price level or below it can supply.

To find out more about the Toyota GR Yaris, head to toyota.co.uk/gr-yaris

https://www.toyota.co.uk/gr-yaris

Our epic 2020 driver’s car fest starts with this – the contest to be named Britain’s Best Affordable Driver’s Car. James Disdale relays the action

CHEAP THRILLS

cloying autumnal mist hangs over Exmoor as we muster, early doors, for the start of our two-day Britain’s Best Affordable Driver’s Car contest. The murky conditions, a brisk wind that cuts

through to the bone and a shortage of vendors of piping-hot tea should sap enthusiasm, but in fact the opposite is true. You see, not only are these moorland roads epically good, but we’re also going to be driving them in a quartet of cars that prove you don’t need a bank account under the name of Bezos to access a billion-dollar experience behind the wheel.

Speaking of which, you’ll notice we’ve gone for an all hot hatch line-up this year. Well, sort of, because delve a little deeper and you’ll discover that each one stretches this decades-old descriptor in wildly different directions. Crucially, what they do have in common is uncommonly good value. All have prices that come in under £40,000 and a juicy PCP deal could mean paying not much more than £200 a month for the privilege of parking at least one of our contestants on your drive.

First up is the Volkswagen Golf GTI, a 45-year-old legend that originally popularised the pocket rocket phenomenon and is now in its eighth generation. Then there’s a pair of returning but revised champs: the Ford Fiesta ST and Honda Civic Type R. One has been treated to some tasty tuning tricks, the other fettled with the addition of some gumball tyres and a stripped-out, circuit star vibe. Completing our quartet is the Toyota GR Yaris, a car that in size, four-wheel-drive layout and WRC-infused DNA could have fallen through a wormhole from an early-1990s group test with a Subaru Impreza Turbo and Ford Escort RS Cosworth. ◊

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2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

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It’s harder-edged than past Golf GTIs but falls short on engagement

∆ So, where to start? Well, the Fiesta is the most affordable here, especially in the form tested, which gets the Mountune treatment for its turbocharged 1.5-litre triple, plus upgraded brakes and some cosmetic changes, but not the Essex firm’s choice suspension upgrades. And that’s as it should be, because there was always a sense that the Fiesta ST’s deeply capable chassis could handle more grunt, which is exactly what it gets here.

The £890 engine upgrade delivers 232bhp and a punchy 258lb ft. It’s those engine mods that dominate initially (well, that and the relentlessly firm low-speed ride). A bespoke twin-exit exhaust gives it a deeper and gurglier backbeat, but the thumping mid-range is what really grabs your attention. The Ford accelerates with such muscular elasticity from 2000rpm that it’s easy to keep the ST snapping at the heels of its more powerful rivals.

There’s a puppyish enthusiasm to the way the Ford goes about its business, rushing for the apex like a hyperactive terrier on the scent, playfully lifting an inside rear wheel as cornering loads grow. It’s laugh-out-loud fun from start to finish. Few front-wheel-drive cars are as throttle adjustable. The Fiesta lets you tighten or widen your line at will – although buyer beware, because even in its most sensible setting, the ESP gives you more angle of dangle than you’d imagine. ◊

Exmoor provided a testing array of roads

for our hot hatches

JAMES D ISDALE Special correspondent

Didn’t need asking twice to put the laptop

away and chip along. He even managed to avoid rear-ending the editor during some dramatic on-circuit car-to-car

tracking photography.

RICHARD LANE Road tester

Gave our hot hatches a thorough going-over, but illness prevented

him from voting on the big hitters. We missed him at Combe; as did our fine collection of

Pink Ladies.

ANDREW FRANKEL

Senior contributing writer

Reminded everyone that Castle Combe

hosted the first Handling Day in 1989. (He was deemed too

junior to attend. As if.)

MATT PR IOR Editor-at-large

The man with the Go-Pro camera gear set records with his one-take recording

efficiency. He also had to borrow Saunders’ waterproof trousers. You can’t win ’em all.

MATT SAUNDERS Road test editor

Remembered to bring waterproof trousers. Mercifully for shorter-legged folks, though, he forgot the Allen keys, so waterproof

cushions weren’t needed in the Ariel.

S IMON DAVIS Road tester

Heel-and-toe technique must have been

adversely affected by wearing one shoe and one flip-flop. But despite the ingrowing toenail, he stayed the course like a true hero.

THE JUDGES

HONDA C IV IC TYPE R L IM ITED

ED IT ION MATT PR IOR

The more time I spend with these, the more I like them. On a circuit,

I’ve wanted it to be less about the front

end, but that doesn’t matter so much on

the road. It gives loads back. I think it has the best steering of any current front-driver

and it has terrific body and roll control. It does feel quite big.

But I’m a big fan.

2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

∆ Yes, the ride is unyielding at low speed and some of Exmoor’s more testing stretches result in the odd hop, skip and jump, while the brake upgrade lacks the progression of the standard stoppers. But the basic Fiesta’s package is as compelling as ever. “I like it a lot,” says editor-at-large Matt Prior. “It’s a fun factory. And very capable while it’s at it.” Exactly.

If the Fiesta is the rabble-rousing teenager, then the Golf is the grown-up in the room, if history is anything to go by. Yet it could be that this heritage is starting to weigh heavily on the VW’s shoulders, because like many approaching their half-century, it appears to be going through something of a mid-life crisis.

All the usual subtle but significant GTI calling cards are present and correct. Powerful turbocharged engine? Check. Lowered and stiffened suspension? Check. Red stripe on the front grille? Check. Checked seat trim? Erm, check. And yet something has changed.

Senior contributing writer Andrew Frankel hits the nail on the head: “I don’t understand what they’re trying to achieve with this car. It had a unique formula so why change it? It’s like Apple deciding it really needs to be a bit more like Samsung.” Essentially, it feels like the Golf is trying too hard to keep up with the whippersnappers and has abandoned its hard-won reputation as cultured all-rounder in the process.

Make no mistake: the Golf is a fantastically quick and capable car and it picks apart these helicoidal Devon roads with clinical efficiency and real precision. It’s clearly quicker point-to-point than its immediate forebear, the brilliant front-end grip, tremendous traction and cast-iron body control helping to keep it suckered to the road. The engine is a corker, too, pulling with real deep-chested muscle from nothing before zinging happily to the redline. ◊

Just two more to arrive before the sun sets

AUTOCA R .CO.UK

❝The Golf is a

good hot hatch but not a great GTI

❞

AUTOCA R .CO.UK

∆ What’s missing with the Golf is the engagement and back-and-forth banter to go with its harder-edged character. The steering is too light and not chatty enough, and while you can disable the ESP (although you’ll need Crystal Maze levels of problem-solving skills to do so), the VW isn’t particularly expressive, preferring to play it straight. Worse still, knock the dampers back into Comfort mode and the brittle edge to the ride remains. It’s still the one you’d take for the long haul home, but the old easy-going nature has evaporated. “A good hot hatch,” says road tester Simon Davis, “but not a great GTI.”

Perhaps throwing the GTI’s issues into even sharper relief is the fact that it rides no better than the Civic: the same track-biased Civic that rolls on Michelin Sport Cup 2 rubber and has an interior shorn of infotainment, air-con and a chunk of sound deadening. “Still an exceptional driver’s car,” says road test editor Matt Saunders, wide-eyed after a few runs. “Just gets the essentials so right: driving position, control layout, Porsche GT3-level feedback and precision, spectacular body control at speed.”

That reference to the rear-engined legend from Zuffenhausen isn’t hyperbole, either. It has been said before, but if Porsche were to produce an affordable front-wheel-drive hatch, then it would drive much like this perfectly honed Honda. The steering is brilliant, with a just-so rate of response and all the feedback you’ll need, and the car pivots beautifully into a corner, its attitude up for instant and accurate adjustment using any combination of steering, brakes and throttle.

Yes, there’s some wheel scrabble and torque steer when those Michelins are chilly, but they warm through quickly to deliver tenacious grip. Body control is absolute, the damping effortlessly keeping everything on an even keel no matter how evil the surface, and the engine still has that voracious V-TEC addiction to the redline. Then there’s the improved six-speed transmission, which is a slice of snickety-shifting heaven. If there’s a better manual in a front-wheel-drive hatch, I’ll eat the Honda’s aluminium-topped gearlever.

If there’s a gripe, it’s the Civic’s size: it’s quite chunky for a family hatch. Both the Matts, Prior and Saunders, utter the same ‘it’s a big car’ comment after clambering out of the Honda’s deeply bucketed driver’s seat. Oh, and the fact that the standard Type R delivers 99.9% of this Limited Edition model’s ability for about £6k less.

But that’s about it for negatives on the Honda, and if you want something more compact and less expensive, well, there’s always the Toyota. ◊

Civic: brilliant steering, tenacious grip and

sweet adjustability

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GT I

ANDREW FRANKELI don’t understand what they’re trying to achieve with this car. It had a unique

formula that’s worked better than any rival formula for 45 years. Why change it? It’s still pretty good –

and I think that’s an important point to make – but it’s less good at what Golfs have always done

best, and without a commensurate gain in dynamic ability.

2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

Proof that if you want to get ahead, get a hat

2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

AUTOCA R .CO.UK

∆ The fact that the Yaris exists at all is incredible. There’s no need for it from a motorsport homologation point of view, so you have to speculate that Toyota expensively developed and built a bespoke four-wheel-drive platform for its new supermini just for the hell of it. These are people we can work with. And while £33,495 might look pricey for a Yaris, you can bet the brand isn’t making a penny out of it.

Still, any financial loss is our gain, although the GR’s charms aren’t immediate. Pugnacious wide-arched stance aside, the Yaris feels a little ordinary at first. You sit high behind the wheel and the interior is rather workaday to behold. Hit the starter button and the three-cylinder engine fires into life so unobtrusively that you have to check the rev counter to confirm its running.

2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

Get moving, though, and the Toyota is brain-bulgingly, eye-poppingly exciting. It’s simply so fast across the ground, thanks to its blend of compact dimensions, four-wheel-drive traction and a boosty engine that gets stronger and stronger the harder you work it.

Most of our testers needed a few moments to reflect after an energetic attack on Exmoor, but with thoughts gathered the superlatives soon flowed. “Stone the crows!” exclaims the normally inscrutable Saunders. “I thought we might never see the likes of this car again – what used to be called ‘a licence-loser’. And yet, for me, it has charms that come through right across the speed range.”

It’s the composure that gets you. No matter what the surface or weather, the Toyota digs in and goes, taking everything in its stride. There’s barely a whiff of understeer on turn-in and its ability to let you get on the throttle so much earlier than in the others here is otherworldly. ◊

FORD F IESTA ST MOUNTUNE

M235 ANDREW FRANKEL

Proves it’s not the ingredients but the recipe that counts. Diff aside, there’s nothing out of the ordinary here, but

when it comes to the simple provision of

fun, it knows exactly what to do. Amazing how hard you can tax that chassis with all

that additional power and torque and it doesn’t just cope,

it rises magnificently to the challenge.

AUTOCA R .CO.UK

∆ Yet there’s also a playfulness on show and you can subtly vary your angle of attack from corner entry to exit, the trick four-wheel drive sending enough torque rearwards for satisfying, four-square slingshots down the next straight, aided by a gloriously ferocious engine that really comes on song at about 4000rpm and feels twice as powerful as its official 257bhp rating. Davis describes it as a “furiously rabid weasel”, which I can’t really argue with.

We loved the Toyota, then? In a word, yes. So I won’t beat around the bush: the Yaris smashed it, with five of the six judges placing it top of their list and the sixth putting it second. That’s as close to emphatic as you’ll get. So there you have it: Britain’s Best Affordable Driver’s Car 2020 is a Toyota Yaris, and that’s a line I never thought I’d write. Now, can this remarkable little machine pull off a similar giant-killing feat against the heavy hitters?

2020 DRIVER’S CARS S U P E R T E S T

To find out more about the Toyota GR Yaris, head to toyota.co.uk/gr-yaris

TOYOTA GR YARIS

C IRCU IT PACKRICHARD LANE

The combination of supple suspension,

boosty – but not especially laggy –

power delivery and the meatily connected

steering makes the GR Yaris feel like

an Integrale for the modern era. It’s easy to drive, loves to be

hammered, has well-positioned pedals and,

if you’ll excuse the cliché, feels every inch

the rally refugee it wants to be, minus

the poor rolling refinement of bygone

Mitsubishi Evos and the like.

❝I thought we might never see the likes

of this car again❞

https://www.toyota.co.uk/gr-yaris