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Toyota Reveals Yaris GRMN With Supercharged 1.8L and "More Than 210 HP"

Toyota has just shown us a couple of photos of its first hot hatch in many years. It's called the Yaris GRMN, is inspired by the company's return to the WRC and will debut at the Geneva Motor Show.
 Toyota Reveals Yaris GRMN With Supercharged 1.8L and "More Than 210 HP" 3 photos
Photo: Toyota
Toyota Reveals Yaris GRMN With Supercharged 1.8L and "More Than 210 HP"Toyota Reveals Yaris GRMN With Supercharged 1.8L and "More Than 210 HP"
While this is clearly a production-intent car, having the front end of the new Yaris facelift that's also coming to Switzerland, we don't yet know how many they will make or what markets it's intended for.

Thanks to the Scion Toyota Mazda2 sedan, we, it's not coming to the US. But everything about this design screams "designed and engineered at Fuji circuit." Everything, that is, except the name because GRMN is hort for Gazoo Racing Masters of Nurburgring.

Even though it's not as popular as "GTI" or "Type R," that's an excellent badge to have on your hot hatch. GRMN has made the Lexus RC F, LFA and Toyota GT 86 go fast during everyone's favorite 24h venue. Right now, they're having a go with the C-HR crossover.

Their livery is part of the Yaris' racing makeover. We also see a shorter suspension, bigger wheels (probably 17-inch ones), a revised rear bumper with a central exhaust and a trunk lid wing a la JCW GP.

We're in love with what Toyota promises to offer under the hood of this car. No, it's not a 1.6-liter turbo, like everyone else has. Instead, they are going to drop a 1.8-liter with a supercharger that the official release describes as having "more than 210 DIN hp," as in more power than the Clio RS, Corsa OPC or 208 GTI.

Although never mentioned in the release, we imagine that this is paired to a 6-speed manual gearbox, possibly even a mechanical diff.

Toyota hasn't made hot hatchbacks in such a long time that we had to use Google to remind ourselves what specific model had a 1.8-liter in the past. It was round about 2002 that the Corolla T Sport came out with a 1.8-liter engine producing 192 PS. Supercharger? No, VTEC... or VVTL-I, as they called it, revving all the way to 8,000rpm. There was also a Yaris T Sport in that era, but it had a 1.5-liter pushing 105 ponies.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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