Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch to follow up facelift with special edition variant

In case you haven’t noticed, Toyota has been dominating the World Rally Championship for four years in a row and to celebrate, it’s bringing out a special version of the GR Yaris hot hatch.

A revealing teaser video posted on the firm’s Gazoo Racing social media accounts shows a GR Yaris decked out with some interesting tweaks over the standard car - which itself only received its mid-life facelift a few weeks ago. 

We can see eight-time WRC winner Sebastien Ogier and the current champion Kalle Rovanpera behind the wheel of a GR Yaris and we suspect Toyota has been generous enough to give both of these rally drivers their own special editions. A small plaque has ‘WRC legend S.Ogier edition’ inscribed on it and while two-time WRC winner Rovanpera might be a little off Ogier’s legendary status, it’d seem a little harsh not to give him his own edition too. 

There’s also a larger rear wing, blue-painted brake calipers, a ‘tricolore’ emblem in the grille (we assume this to be bespoke on the Frenchman Ogier’s edition) and also a new ‘push Kalle’ mode in the middle of the driving mode selector replacing the ‘Normal’ mode, along with a ‘Donut’ mode. A few ‘World Rally Championship’ logos also appear on the outside, which looks to have been given a similar red, white and black paint job to last year’s rally car. 

We don’t know if any changes to the powertrain or chassis will appear for the special edition Yaris, although a recent facelift did improve power output and implement chassis tweaks. The 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder now puts out 276bhp and 390Nm of torque. Every facelifted GR Yaris also comes with the ‘Circuit Package’ with a locking differential for both axles and there are more welding spots for a stiffer body. The video does show that the car is available as a manual, although we’re not sure if it'll be extended to the new automatic model too. 

Toyota will reveal the special edition GR Yaris at the WRC season opener in Monte Carlo on 25 January. We don’t know how many will be made but given the appetite for the standard car, we expect it’ll be sold out very quickly indeed. 

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