There’s no denying that the Toyota GR Yaris is quite possibly the greatest Toyota ever built in recent decades. It’s so unnecessary and pointless which makes it properly brilliant and desirable. That’s the beauty of these kinds of cars, they’re built for purpose and nothing more. You can justify a RM300,000 Yaris with words such as “homologation”, “race car” and “Tommi Mäkinen”. Because that’s what it is through and through.
However, Toyota has once again messed around with the GR Yaris to further ‘enhance’ the car to different heights. Basically Toyota took sugar, spice and everything nice and sprinkled it all over the GR Yaris. By the nature of the build, it seems that this was supposed to be ideal GR Yaris from day one but as we all know, manufacturers too have to make some additional cash as well, hence the more desirable being a limited production unit.
Cue in the GRMN Yaris, a limited 500-unit version of the GR Yaris with more bits and more money. According to Toyota, the GRMN “is a fully tuned model of the GR Yaris that has gone through rigorous refinement with professional drivers.” The list of drivers include Toyota’s very own president, Akio Toyoda under the pseudonym “Morizo”, to race in the Super Taikyu Series and Japanese Rally Championship.
Hotter & Spicier Hatch
With the feedback, Toyota has managed to enhance the rigidity while dropping some 20kg, bringing the weight down to 1260kg. In order to improve the aerodynamics, the width has been increased by 10mm and the car has also been dropped by an additional 10mm for a lower center of gravity. Also equipped now in the list is a mechanical LSD (instead of the Torsen LSD), a close-ratio gear transmission, and a low final gear set. The chassis too has been upgraded, starting with the set of Bilstein-tuned suspension and added stitch welding on the chassis for added stiffening on 545 points all over the car. In order to achieve that 20kg loss, Toyota have added lightweight high-rigidity carbon (twill weave CFRP) on the hood, roof, and rear spoiler, removing the rear seats to make it a two-seater car. Another structural rigidity improvement made was by adding more structural adhesive.
Doesn't Get More JDM Than This
Sadly there is a caveat to this as the GRMN Yaris will be a Japan-only model with an allocation-based order. And for one to get an allocation, you have to enter Toyota’s lottery style application through their website between 14th January 2022 until 28th February 2022. The winners will be contacted on the 9th of March with the sales to be conducted in the Spring of 2022. The cars will be priced between 7,317,000 yen (RM268,497.83) to 8,467,000 yen (RM311,270.66). We’re estimating them to be priced somewhere around the RM500,000 mark for the ones that reach Malaysia through gray-import dealers but even then it’ll take at least a year.
That being said, if you are a current GR Yaris owner, you could buy the GRMN parts and install them on your car. The prices of each product has yet to be released but it probably wouldn’t be cheap considering the premium that Toyota charges over the standard GR Yaris.
Written by | Danial Malek
Images by | Toyota
