Photo: Toyota
No rest for the wicked as Toyota is looking to drop a lot of jaws with an extreme version of the Yaris urban vehicle, according to some reports, after the company revealed that it will return to the World Rally Championship in 2017.
If Toyota is set to make a comeback in the WRC arena, the public will not only be able to see a Toyota rumbling, powersliding and jumping on different surfaces and stages of the rally competition, but they'll also get a road-legal version of the rally-bred car.
According to Japan's Best Car magazine who got intel from a source close to Toyota, the car would look like this, but you must know that this is only a rendering thus nothing can be officially confirmed yet.
According to Motoring.com, the future 2016 WRC racer will be based on the upcoming Yaris generation (Vitz in Japan) that is bound to make a debut next year. Moreover, the pocket-rocket will use a turbocharged 1.6 liter unit a its main weapon of choice, that will reportedly be good for around 300 HP (224 kW).
If this is true, Toyota has a pretty simple task ahead, because in order to comply with FIA homologation standards and qualify for 2017 WRC participation, the Japanese carmaker must sell at least 250 rally-spec Yaris hatchbacks. We say it's easy because Yaris is quite popular in Europe so reaching this feat is not that far fetched to start with.
Moreover, Toyota tested the potential of an upcoming WRC racer in both France and Belgium last year, using a prototype of the current Yaris but testing will continue this year after engineers will test the car in tarmac conditions around Italy.
During its spell in the rally arena, Toyota managed to score 45 rally wins thanks to legendary rally cars like the Celica Turbo and GT-Four.
According to Japan's Best Car magazine who got intel from a source close to Toyota, the car would look like this, but you must know that this is only a rendering thus nothing can be officially confirmed yet.
According to Motoring.com, the future 2016 WRC racer will be based on the upcoming Yaris generation (Vitz in Japan) that is bound to make a debut next year. Moreover, the pocket-rocket will use a turbocharged 1.6 liter unit a its main weapon of choice, that will reportedly be good for around 300 HP (224 kW).
If this is true, Toyota has a pretty simple task ahead, because in order to comply with FIA homologation standards and qualify for 2017 WRC participation, the Japanese carmaker must sell at least 250 rally-spec Yaris hatchbacks. We say it's easy because Yaris is quite popular in Europe so reaching this feat is not that far fetched to start with.
Moreover, Toyota tested the potential of an upcoming WRC racer in both France and Belgium last year, using a prototype of the current Yaris but testing will continue this year after engineers will test the car in tarmac conditions around Italy.
During its spell in the rally arena, Toyota managed to score 45 rally wins thanks to legendary rally cars like the Celica Turbo and GT-Four.
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