Toyota is planning a hot homologation special of its next Yaris that will bring a high-performance version of the car to a wider customer base than the current GRMN model - and boost the pace of the manufacturer’s World Rally Championship car.
The current Yaris GRMN is expected to trickle through to the UK in tiny numbers - with no more than 100 examples expected and at a price of more than £26,000. However, the man in charge of Toyota’s high-performance division, the Gazoo Racing Company, has told Auto Express that a successor is already planned – and that it will be more affordable and available in larger numbers.
That’s because the next hot Yaris will be a homologation special, designed to offer advantages to Gazoo Racing’s World Rally team when its engineers start to develop the car for competition. To comply with rallying’s rules, at least 25,000 examples will have to be produced in one year – so the car, which is likely to be badged Yaris GR instead of the ‘full-house’ GRMN, will need to be offered with a price tag of around £20,000.
Shigeki Tomoyama, Senior Manager with responsibility for Gazoo Racing, said: “We know our current situation and we believe that we need to change the platform for the rally car to be even more competitive. So for the next generation of rally Yaris we will prepare a homologation road car. We have to commit to producing 25,000 of them in one year, so it won’t be a limited edition like GRMN.”
Tomoyama declined to provide details on what would be changed, although he admitted: “There will be some differences in the suspension pick-up points, because suspension travel is a big factor in WRC.
“Also we would be lighter in some areas, because that could allow our rally team to move weight around”. Most rally cars are below the minimum weight, and the teams are able to position ballast strategically for better handling.
“This is the sort of thing we are looking at,” Tomoyama told us. “But in the meantime, we’re focused on winning the championship with the current Yaris next year.”
The existing Yaris is reaching the end of its first season in the WRC, and it’s likely to continue competing until the end of 2019. So Tomayama’s comments also suggest that Toyota is already preparing to extend its stay beyond its current three-year commitment; a new generation of the rally car in 2020 would also tie up with what’s likely to be a replacement for the current road car, which was introduced in 2013. The facelifted car was launched this year.
The move could prove a controversial one in world rallying, where the current rules are designed to dissuade manufacturers from committing large sums of money to ‘homologation specials’.
Relatively few examples of this vehicle have been created since the World Rally Car rules were introduced in 1997 - although Peugeot produced a limited run of its 206 with longer bumpers, just so it could comply with the WRC’s regulation on minimum length.
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