It's good to see a shootout between the GR Yaris and another vehicle that isn't a drag race for once. While that might be the most simple test you can conduct, it's definitely not the most relevant or the most exciting. What makes things even more interesting is that the GR Yaris is taking on its older sibling, the Celica GT-Four ST205.
These days you get an abundance of online car content, but most of the time, the people reviewing those cars are not professional drivers by any means, they are simple car enthusiasts. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's always nice to get a professional opinion from someone with decades of racing experience.
And Jason Plato suits the description quite well, as his prolonged British Touring Car Championship experience saw him start in almost 600 races to this day, with him managing to win 97 of those! He has even given V8 Supercars a go back in 2000 and 2004.
The Celica GT-Four ST205 was launched back in 1994, and what an exciting drive it must have been back then as well! With 239 horsepower on tap, four wheel drive and a curb weight of just 3,000 lbs (1,390 kg), this car carried World Rally Championship DNA and remains sought after to this day by car enthusiasts around the globe.
The GR Yaris has been reviewed over and over again by journalists and enthusiasts, and we're not sure there's anything left we haven't learned about this car so far. We've seen it lap the Nürburgring and Tsukuba, drag race against several sports cars like the Supra MKV and the Honda Civic Type R, and it doesn't seem like this will stop anytime soon.
Today's venue of choice is Castle Combe circuit in the United Kingdom, which is 1.85 miles (2.97 km) long. Jason takes turns driving both cars, and while he does seem excited about the Celica GT-Four, it's the GR Yaris that really grabs his attention in this test. While you might have guessed the outcome just by looking at the spec sheets of the two cars, it's still interesting to see how big of a gap there's actually going to be between them by the end.
The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S. Full profile
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