2020 Toyota GR Yaris Posts Sub 8-Minute BTG Lap on the Nurburgring

At this point, everyone already knows the specs of the new GR Yaris. All in all an it's an amazing package, consisting of a turbocharged engine that outputs around 260 horsepower as well as a four-wheel-drive system giving it a very rally-like feel - much like its legendary predecessor, the Celica GT4.

Seeing that the car is limited to 230 kph (roughly 143 mph), most people argued that the car would be at a disadvantage on all of the fast sections of the track. Also, at high speeds, some wondered how the shorter wheelbase would affect the handling of the little GR Yaris.

But it seems like Captain Gaskrank, as he call himself on Youtube, just went out on the Nordschleife's Bridge to Gantry section, which is slightly shorter at 11.9 miles (19.1 km) compared to the full lap which is 12.944 miles (20.8 km) long.

The weather conditions were far from ideal for such an attempt, and you can hear the Michelin P4S tires sliding and screeching on the tarmac around most of the corners. Looking at the telemetry data displayed on screen, we notice that the car gets as much as 1.3 lateral Gs, time and time again.

Four minutes in, he even manages to overtake not one, but two GTRs, as he just keeps pushing the little GR Yaris in an attempt to finish the lap in under 8 minutes. Although he faces some heavy traffic in the final section, he manages to steer clear of it and post a time of 7 minutes and 56 seconds.

Seeing that the Bridge to Gantry lap is probably around 20 seconds shorter than a full lap, that would mean that his result is right up there with the likes of the BMW 1 Series M Coupe, the Honda Civic Type R FK2, and the Lexus IS-F. But we're betting that we're going to see more such attempts in the spring and probably get a more conclusive idea about how much faster the GR Yaris can really be.