CAST YOUR MIND BACK TO 1996 , BEFORE
Toyota’s fi rst Yaris came to be. Not the most inspiring of
mental holidays, I grant you, but stick with me here.
Toyota’s contemporarytotwas the Starlet,a vehicle about
as generically ‘small car’ as it’s possible to get. A vehicle
further from a hot hatchback you could hardly imagine,
and aside from Toyota UK’s admirable attempts to jazz it
up in SR form with some Speedline alloys and a Castrol-
inspired fl ash of graphical colour, it had the charm of a
roadside Portakabin café and the agility of a diving suit.
Yet, as is so often the case, things were
different in Japan. Over there, alongside the
standard blue-rinse Starlets, was something
called the Glanza V. The name sounded
like it came from another planet, and for
all its similarity to a regular Starlet it might
as well have done. Out went the anaemic
74bhp 1.3, and in its place a dual-overhead
cam, turbocharged 1.3-litre was installed,
delivering 138bhp to the front wheels. The
garden-centre bodywork was almost entirely
covered with air dams, scoops, wings and skirts, and the
Glanza sprinted to 62mph in a shade over eight seconds.
Why am I telling you this? Because 2018’s Toyota Yaris
GRMN is as far removed from the base product as that
Glanza was back in the mid-1990s. From the chrysalis of a
model better known for its worthy-but-dull hybrids, it was
almost inconceivable that one of the year’s most refreshing
and entertaining hot hatchbacks could emerge.
This was a parts-bin car in the best possible sense,
components hand-picked to be greater than the sum of
their parts. The 2ZR-FE 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine had
startedlifeinCorollasandotherfamilycars,beforepassing
TOYOTA YARIS GRMN
through Lotus where it gained a supercharger. In its fi nal,
Yaris-shaped home, the 2ZR made a frenzied 209bhp and
184lb ft of torque, through a six-speed close-ratio gearbox
and Torsen diff.
The black lattice-spoke alloy wheels were forged by BBS,
the dampers developed by Sachs, and the GT86 donated its
small-diameter three-spoke steering wheel. Sports seats
completed the effect in an otherwise unremarkable Yaris
cabin, but made all the difference to how it felt, even if
drivers ended up perched a little too high.
True, the GRMN couldn’t quite match the
polish of the similarly special Peugeot Sport
208 GTi, but to drive it was to understand the
name. GRMN stands for Gazoo Racing tuned
by Meister of the Nürburgring, and Toyota
will only apply the tag to cars that have spent
sufficient time there to earn it. Playful, revvy
and adjustable, the Yaris GRMN absolutely
did, and this makes it an even more credible
performance car than those sporty Starlets of
theGranTurismoera.
There is one other thing that separates the GRMN from
the Glanza V, though. Unlike that car, Toyota saw fi t to
sell the GRMN in Europe, and in limited numbers at that.
Just 600 Yaris GRMNs were built in total, with the UK’s
allocation of 100 selling out almost immediately despite a
£26,295 price tag.
If not for the way it drives or the high-engineering cool,
the GRMN’s skunkworks rarity guarantees its status as a
future icon. And if that’s what Toyota’s engineers can do
withthe Yaris asa starting point,the brand’s credibility and
the Yaris GRMN’s collectibility should only grow further
when Gazoo Racing gets its hands on the latest Corolla.
‘THISWASA
PARTS-BINCAR
INTHEBEST
POSSIBLESENSE’
Humble origins, but the tiny Toyota is a big deal, reckonsAntony Ingram