Photo: Toyota
The Gazoo Racing Meister of Nurburgring, that’s what the four-letter GRMN suffix stands for. And in truth, Toyota has never made a hot hatchback as exciting as the Yaris GRMN. For that and probably many other reasons, availability of the newcomer will be extremely limited in Europe.
Pricing is one area that’s not in the Japanese interloper’s advance. Starting at £26,295 according to Autocar, the Yaris GRMN is sensibly more expensive than subcompact segment rivals such as the Ford Fiesta ST and Renault Clio RS. And that’s not good considering that Toyota doesn’t have the hot hatchback pedigree of the Blue Oval and French Rhombus.
There’s also the suck-squeeze-bang-blow part, with the Yaris GRMN relying on a supercharging system instead of a turbocharger to produce 210 horsepower and an undisclosed amount of torque from a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine. Connected to a six-speed manual transmission, the Japanese model boasts best-in-segment zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration, as well as the 80-120 km/h (50-75 mph) sprint in fourth gear.
Autocar reports “the Yaris GRMN will be limited to just 400 units in Europe,” with 100 of the grand total coming to the United Kingdom. It’s not clear from the cited publication if this is a one-year or an atemporal limitation, but chances are it will be almost impossible to see a Yaris GRMN out in the wild without tracking one with the help of a carparazzi.
A rarefied breed that’s scheduled to go into production later in the year, the 2018 Toyota Yaris GRMN has been spotted multiple times testing its Torsen limited-slip differential both on the public road and at the track. In fact, the spy photographers even caught a glimpse of a five-door Yaris GRMN.
While we wait for Toyota to release more information on its smallest performance car, here’s hope the Japanese automaker won’t stop with the Yaris GRMN. All in all, offering performance-oriented derivatives of regular cars is arguably the best way Toyota can add value to its econoboxes.
There’s also the suck-squeeze-bang-blow part, with the Yaris GRMN relying on a supercharging system instead of a turbocharger to produce 210 horsepower and an undisclosed amount of torque from a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine. Connected to a six-speed manual transmission, the Japanese model boasts best-in-segment zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration, as well as the 80-120 km/h (50-75 mph) sprint in fourth gear.
Autocar reports “the Yaris GRMN will be limited to just 400 units in Europe,” with 100 of the grand total coming to the United Kingdom. It’s not clear from the cited publication if this is a one-year or an atemporal limitation, but chances are it will be almost impossible to see a Yaris GRMN out in the wild without tracking one with the help of a carparazzi.
A rarefied breed that’s scheduled to go into production later in the year, the 2018 Toyota Yaris GRMN has been spotted multiple times testing its Torsen limited-slip differential both on the public road and at the track. In fact, the spy photographers even caught a glimpse of a five-door Yaris GRMN.
While we wait for Toyota to release more information on its smallest performance car, here’s hope the Japanese automaker won’t stop with the Yaris GRMN. All in all, offering performance-oriented derivatives of regular cars is arguably the best way Toyota can add value to its econoboxes.
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