So if you have not heard of the Toyota GR Yaris, don’t feel bad. This is a car that is not sold in the United States (yet) and is one of those, “why don’t we get the cool stuff, too?!” situations that we seem to deal with a lot here. You are thinking I have lost my mind by calling a Yaris cool, but this one is.
Listen, BangShift has plenty of Yaris history. In fact, during the first few years of the site, Chad and I would often have rental car Yaris mobiles to cruise around in. We did amazingly awful things to them all. Different story for a different day. None of them could hold a candle to this little hot rod you are going to watch run 12s with a bolt on cat-back exhaust, K&N air filter, and larger tires all around.
The 272hp turbocharged three cylinder powering this car is a mean ass little engine. The GR uses all wheel drive, a manual transmission, and this driver gets it done on the strip, working the launch and shifting technique run after run to lower the lower the ETs and finally smash into the 12s with authority. When guys start tuning these, adding better turbos, and really leaning on them you are going to see 11-second three cylinder cars. That is mental.
Yeah, we know it is a little econo car but listen. With less than half the cylinders of anything that lived in the muscle car era, this little bullet train mangles them all. Hate it if you want but this thing is awesome.
Interesting…Toyota is listening…if you want something like this, they have a page to let them know
https://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/gr-hot-hatch/