Toyota GR Yaris Gets Reviewed, Is More Old School Impreza Than Mitsubishi Evo

And I'm happy that this review was conducted at the racetrack because there's no better place to put the GR Yaris to the test. The car Adam Towler is driving in this video is a Circuit Pack version, finished in Precious Black Metallic. The track is Bedford Autodrome, some 70 miles (112 km) away from London, in the United Kingdom.

Before setting a lap time, he takes the car for a spin round the circuit, to see what it's all about. If you're used to driving V8-powered cars, you might look at the little GR Yaris and think nothing of it. But, as Adam and other automotive journalists have pointed out: "What strikes you initially is how gutsy it feels, how quick it is. It's really got some fire to it, especially in the mid-range!"

This might be just a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine, but let's not forget that Toyota built these cars with racing homologation in mind and that the race-spec version of it will take on the World Rally Championship, along with other world-class sporting events. Also, the power to weight ratio isn't half bad, and with the GR Yaris, we're once again reminded how important it is for a sports car to be as light as possible.

With three available driving modes, Adam has chosen Sport Mode, which means 30% of the power is going to the front wheels, while 70% is being directed to the rear wheels. As he points out, even with this kind of power distribution to the wheels, this is no drift car, as it was built with grip in mind, and its behavior around the corners is referred to as "surprisingly neutral".

But if it's sliding around you're aiming for, it can do that if you push all the right buttons. I've already seen several videos of people seamlessly drifting this around snowy roads, and the GR Yaris seems to be very confidence-inspiring indeed. As he takes it through the corners, the racing pedigree of this vehicle becomes more and more obvious.

It makes you think that you could already sign up at your local hill climb event and have a go in it. "You've got to chuck it around to really feel this car's inner character, it's not a side that you see on the road because you can't access it". I think that in a few years we'll be seeing a lot of these cars being converted for racing-duty, and taking over from the successful hot-hatches and sporty cars of the past decade.

Adam does point out that: "It's not the easiest of cars to control when it's sliding, due to its short wheelbase", but anyone with enough experience to flick this around the corners should be able to come out of them in one piece if they just commit to it. After several laps on the track, he points out that "the way it feels is, it's more old school Impreza than old school Mitsubishi Evo, it doesn't have the old Evo's laser-guided precision and sharpness to the steering".

To conclude his review, he goes for a fast lap, and track mode has been selected for this run. Although it looks like it's pretty cold outside, the little GR Yaris seems to be very stable under heavy throttle, even though you can hear that the tires are being pushed hard. The outcome is a fast lap clocked at 1 minute and 24 seconds.

This means the GR Yaris is faster than Volkswagen Golf R by three seconds but slower than the Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition by almost 2 seconds, according to the previous tests conducted on the same track. But as the reviewer himself points out, this car wasn't built for fast laps alone, and we should really take the time to appreciate the fact that Toyota came up with a pure sports car that we can all enjoy.