Can anyone dare to accuse Toyota of slacking around this year? At least, given the tidal wave of major introductions, not from the North American perspective.
If we only cover the brightest stars, the US market was graced with the all-new Prius 'Hybrid Reborn' in 220-hp Prime plug-in hybrid form, the 2023 Corolla Cross Hybrid, a trio of special GR (Corolla Circuit, GR86 Trueno, GR Supra 45th Anniversary) editions for 2024MY, the spacious Grand Highlander three-row crossover SUV, the entire 2024 Corolla Nightshade family, as well as the 2024 Tacoma and Land Cruiser heroes.
Sure, one could say that other regions were a bit neglected. Still, Toyota would quickly disagree – Europe got the Prius PHEV, too, an all-new C-HR, a feistier Yaris Hybrid 130, and a taste of the 2024 Land Cruiser Prado, among others. And we could go on. But that doesn't mean there aren't models that were out of the spotlight. Important ones – if you like Gazoo Racing and rally nods. Well, I guess everyone understands where I'm heading to – a discussion with the feisty little GR Yaris hot hatch pocket rocket on the table.
The bonkers three-door hatchback with a crazy 268-hp three-cylinder, advanced all-wheel drive, and an OEM widebody kit was the darling of automotive enthusiasts when it appeared in late 2020. But the years have passed, and attention has been diverted to other Toyota models. So, how about a nip and tuck to make the WRC homologation model great again? Well, if we were talking about the real world, this would hint toward an impending facelift, right?
But, on the other hand, now we are dwelling around the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, and things tend to get wacky pretty quickly. So, what could easily be interpreted as a redesign of the beloved Toyota GR Yaris with stuff like reworked LED headlights and interconnected, LED bar-style taillights has quickly veered into the aftermarket world, too, given the slammed atmosphere and exotic widebody aerodynamic kit treatment.
Of course, this is the virtual artist better known as hycade on social media that we are talking about, and he can easily be seen as a massive contemporary sports car fan. Hence, a GR Yaris rework is consistent with his MO. After all, he spent quite a lot of time reworking the GR Supra and Supra MkIV according to his dreamy visions, and no one complained about those.
We are not about to start now with the Toyota GR Yaris, especially given how this CGI transformation makes the pocket rocket into a veritable road monster. The attention to digital details is sublime, as always, with these signature widebody kits getting pampered to the brink of perfection. And this vision clearly suits the GR Yaris – either in crimson or black, complete with massive vents, humongous concave wheels, a quad exhaust setup, and the virtual feel that we're about to see a few speed records taken down with help from that gargantuan rear wing! Cool, right?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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