Toyota GR Yaris Takes On Subaru WRX STi on Track, Tiny Toyo Not Quite There Yet

Like many other great cars before it, the GR Yaris was born out of Toyota's desire to re-enter the world of motorsport (rallying, in this case). If you're old enough, you can probably remember the times when the Toyota Celica was one of the best rally cars out there, particularly in the hands of a certain Carlos Sainz. These days, the Japanese are back at it with the Yaris WRC, and they're doing a pretty good job at it.

Even if Subaru was forced to drop its WRC ambitions due to the economic downturn back in 2008, its WRX STi model is still strongly associated with the world of rallying, and for good reason. There's more than just the name and the appearance that links the current model to the older Impreza WRX STis, and a lot of it has to do with the vehicle's powertrain and performance.

In an attempt to see how the venerable WRX STi stacks up compared to Toyota's GR Yaris homologation special, Australian YT channel CarExpert took both cars out for a head-to-head comparison. However, they didn't do it over a rally stage but rather on a racing track. The Queensland Raceway Sprint Circuit, to be more exact.

Performance-wise, even if they take their power from two very different sources, the two are pretty evenly matched. The STi famously uses a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine for its 306 hp (310 PS) output and 290 lb-ft (393 Nm) maximum torque. The GR Yaris's three-cylinder 1.6-liter turbocharged engine hasn't achieved legendary status yet, but given its insane performance (257 hp/261 PS and 266 lb-ft/360 Nm), it most likely shortly will.

These two were not built for track action, and seeing them blasting down the circuit makes it pretty obvious. It's not that they're not fast; they just like to slide too much, prompting counter steering reactions from the driver. It's like watching a bodybuilder trying to do cross fitness—he'll do it; he just won't look entirely natural in the process.

The track outing reveals just how similar these cars are despite their obvious differences. The braking, the acceleration, and the steering all feel alike, though the shorter wheelbase of the Yaris means it's a lot jumpier and moves around more. It's also quicker to react to handbrake inputs, though it tends to require more time to keep the power slide going.

At the end of the day, though, the two cars are on a racetrack, so the one thing that matters is how quickly they can complete a hot lap. The Yaris has the advantage when it comes to pure acceleration (5.71 seconds as tested, compared to the STi's 6.12 seconds for the 0-62 mph/0-100 kph sprint), but it's the Subaru that seems to be more confidence-inspiring around the bends. Place your bets now.

Well, it looks like the old dog still has a few tricks up its sleeve as it manages to beat the Yaris—and quite comfortably (1:00.72 compared to 1:01.53). Looking at the leaderboard, we can see the WRX STi has a few other high-profile victims, lapping the track quicker than both the Volkswagen Golf R Mk7 and the Golf GTI TCR. Watch the entire clip below for some really cool insight into how these two rally cars behave on the track.