2021 Toyota GR Yaris track test and performance review
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TechTranscript
00:00Hey guys, Chris here and we're back at Queensland Raceway, our test track, and today it's pretty
00:04exciting because we've got the Toyota Yaris GR.
00:08Now I've heard a lot of good things about this and probably the coolest thing is that
00:11it brings me back to when I started rallying and they had a mulligation specials with the
00:15Subarus and the Evo Mitsubishis and now 30 years later nearly, Toyota are doing the same
00:21thing again which is really, really cool and really exciting.
00:25Now it's a 3-cylinder 1.6-litre turbo, 200 kilowatts and 370 newton metres of torque
00:31and one of the most powerful 3-cylinder engines in the world, 6-speed manual transmission
00:35and all-wheel drive which is pretty important in a rally car and that's got a clutch pack
00:40in the centre rather than the differential and that distributes torque front and rear
00:44and go from 60 front, 40 rear all the way to 30 front, 70 rear or in track mode 50-50,
00:49giving you lots of options so I'm really excited to test that out and basically just see how
00:54quick this is on track.
00:55Now I've read a lot of good reviews, haven't seen any lap times yet so it's going to be
00:59interesting to see where it fits in.
01:00First I'll do the 0-100 and the braking test and then some hot laps and see how quick she is.
01:05Alright so initial impressions, I don't mind the seating position, you do feel high, it's
01:25almost a little bit like a mini SUV but angle's not bad, it's actually quite a soft seat,
01:31very cushiony which is a little bit strange, it's comfortable but probably in a track car
01:36you want a slightly firmer seat because you do move around a little bit in the cushioning.
01:40Steering wheel for me is good size, dash layout's pretty standard, nothing exciting there, I
01:46would have liked something maybe a little bit more special like a centre dial and a
01:50big rev number, shift light and all that, that would have been quite cool.
01:56Let's see the engine, not bad, seems to rev reasonably well, decent torque and it pulls
02:06through the rev range so pretty quick, doesn't blow you away, it's 200 kilowatts, it's solid
02:13but it's not crazy power and reasonably light, it's 1280 kilos so pretty light so that's
02:19going to be an advantage but the winning part for me is going to be the traction, if we
02:24can get the balance right, get the traction off the corner then we're going to do a quick
02:27lap time.
02:29Brakes actually feel really good, I was impressed with the brakes in the 86 and this feels even
02:36better for me, I really like when you can modulate and control that pressure and the
02:42car's not taking over and there's no interference there.
02:44I've turned traction control off, stability control off and pretty much that's all I can
02:49do and it's going to be interesting to see how it compares to the hot hatches, down a
02:52little bit on power compared to some of them but you've got the bonus of the all wheel
02:57drive.
02:58Alright let's start our flying lap.
03:28Let's go.
03:58So there you go guys, the Yaris GR, now time wise it's actually a pretty good time when
04:17you look at it for the segment that it's in, it did a 1.015 so 61.5, right in the middle
04:24of the Golf GTI TCR and the Golf R, actually faster than the Golf R by two tenths so pretty
04:32impressive from a little three cylinder Yaris, that's pretty cool.
04:38I am impressed with this car, there's so many good little bits about it, the suspension
04:42which I didn't talk about in the beginning, the initial feeling is excellent, similar
04:45to the brake pedal, just rolls over a little bit, nice and soft but still with support
04:51so for an everyday car, throwing around, having fun, like ideal setup, doesn't feel harsh
04:57and just absorbs all the bunts and I think on a back road this car could be so much fun.
05:03The gearbox I did struggle a bit with, I had a few misshifts and I noticed it got worse
05:07the more laps I did so just with the heat, just sometimes felt like I didn't quite fully
05:12engage the gear and I couldn't quite trust it so that hurt me a little bit.
05:17Interesting thing is the best lap I did was the first lap, my first flying lap in this
05:22car was the quickest lap and after then I went slower and slower and slower.
05:26Now I think there's two main reasons for that, first the tyres, there is a rally version
05:31coming and it hopefully solves both these problems so I think the tyres are good initially
05:36but once they've got some heat in them they just never came back to that initial grip
05:40that I had and even when we gave it a rest and checked the tyre pressures I could never
05:44get it back to that initial feeling, the grip and the traction that I needed and the
05:49reason I say that is because this doesn't have the differentials front and rear that
05:54are coming in the Rally Edition, the Torsen LSDs that as long as you've got grip I don't
05:58think you need those, the car is really well balanced, the car's got great traction but
06:02as soon as the grip drops away and I started to slip a wheel then the balance went away
06:07and I think the differentials in the Rally Edition would really help there but just the
06:12tyres are going to make a difference and it's going to be more consistent throughout
06:16the laps and not drop off as much, that's my gut feeling.
06:19Now back to the differentials, what I liked about this and it reminded me of the old Subaru
06:24when you could roll the dial forward and lock the differential and we used to use that in
06:28Group N cars and basically lock the differential and when that didn't work you lost a lot of
06:32time on the stage and also a bit like an active WRC car back in the day where I could adjust
06:37the pots in the car and I could tune the balance front and rear depending on the tyre
06:42wear during a stage.
06:43With this in track mode with 50-50 torque split I found when the grip went away then
06:50I had a bit more understeer in the fast corners and just couldn't get the car to rotate as
06:57well yet as soon as I put it in sport mode which is 30 front 70 rear then I could get
07:02the car to rotate on the entry there but then I lost out at the exit of the corner
07:07with the 30-70 so off this slow corner coming up here I definitely had some understeer in
07:13sport mode yet in track mode with the more balanced torque split 50-50 then I could have
07:20a better drive off the corner so it's great that that's working and working to a level
07:25that I can really feel the difference.
07:27Riding wise it's solid like it's not slow but it doesn't blow you away and you can imagine
07:33from a three cylinder as much power as you can squeeze out of it there's always going
07:37to be limitations with the width of power and I'd say the good thing is that it does
07:42feel like it revs pretty freely and revs nice and easily and doesn't have any hollow points
07:47just is a good solid package and is more than enough if it's running with a Golf R then
07:53it's definitely not a slow car so hats off to the Yaris for that.
07:58Steering feedback I thought was quite good as well reminds me a lot of the things of
08:02the feeling of an 86 just in a completely different package and anyone getting one of
08:07these is not going to be disappointed I think it's a real little rocket ship great fun handles
08:13well you're not afraid of living on the edge and you can just enjoy this car in so many
08:18different driving situations whether it's a huge track like you are here or on a tiny
08:23little back road I think this car can be great fun in many situations and that's what we
08:28want out here.
08:29Hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did hit the like button and don't forget to subscribe
08:33lots of great content coming in 2021 so look forward to that and let us know what you'd
08:38like to see on the track as well we'll catch you guys again soon.