The Toyota GRMN Yaris Lets You Pick Rally or Track

The GR Yaris, Toyota's most exciting new car, exists because CEO Akio Toyoda was willing to make the best possible subcompact road car in pursuit of a more competitive professional rally car. The resulting car is already uncompromising, but Toyota's Gazoo Racing badging system goes up one more trim level, so there was room in the lineup to make an even less compromising performance car on the two-door Yaris platform. Enter the GRMN Yaris.

Toyota says that the GRMN Yaris builds on the GR imprint's focus on evolving quickly and tailoring to the needs of individual drivers. These are the traits of a racing car in active development; not coincidentally, Akio Toyoda himself has been racing the car as his racing alter ego "Morizo" in the Super Taikyu Series. In the GRMN Yaris, those lessons mean a lighter and stiffer car that gives up back seats for a mechanical LSD and a close-ratio gearbox.

The base GRMN Yaris cuts 44 pounds and four-tenths of an inch of ride height from the standard GR Yaris. An optional circuit package also adds unique wheels, bigger brakes, custom shocks, and aerodynamic upgrades. If a buyer is more interested in the car's rallying potential, a dealer-installed rally package adds specialized shocks, underbody protection, and a roll cage.