Males piloting the GR Yaris have received the Driver’s Championship on the prime stage of the World Rally Championship for the previous 5 years: Estonian Ott Tanak in 2019, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier in 2020 and 2021, Finn Kalle Rovanpera in 2022 and 2023. On the finish of the 2022 season, in celebration, Toyota created two particular editions of the GR Yaris in Japanese-market RZ Excessive Efficiency trim, one of many automobiles tuned by Ogier, the opposite by Rovanpera. You already know what they are saying about one good flip, so right here we’re once more with two extra particular editions.
Each sizzling hatches get two retuned driving modes that change the inventory Monitor and Gravel modes within the Yaris RZ Excessive Efficiency, and every contains a Begin/Cease button with the respective driver’s identify on it.
Rovanpera’s GR Yaris goes with a swan-neck rear wing in carbon fiber, purple brake calipers behind 18-inch BBS wheels, and is wearing a purple, white, and grey camo sample barely completely different to final 12 months’s. Blue and silver stitching adorn the steering wheel, shifter boot, parking brake deal with, and seats. The unique Kalle Mode will get a revamped rear diff tuned for “aggressively swinging out the car’s rear when coming into a curve and pulling ahead the car’s entrance utilizing the accelerator when exiting a curve, contributing to shorter race instances.” And the Donut Mode is for managed drifts throughout actions like handbrake turns.
Ogier’s GR Yaris provides a bigger rear stabilizer and blue brake calipers, and is available in a particular bi-tone of shiny silver with black accents on the doorways. The cabin’s acquired particular purple, white, and blue stitching on the steering wheel. On this one, Seb Mode sends a majority of torque to the again axle, making the Yaris deal with extra like a rear-wheel driver. And the Morizo Mode, contains a dealing with tune developed by and named for Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda’s racing pseudonym, which Ogier occurs to love. We should always observe that it looks like Ogier will get the glory of a customized automobile due to companies rendered to Toyota and the game. In 2022, Toyota driver Elfyn Evans completed fourth within the Driver’s Championship, two spots forward of Ogier, who had solely entered six occasions. Final season, Evans completed second within the driver’s desk, Ogier, once more on a restricted schedule, in fifth. Ogier, who received six WRC driver’s titles with Volkswagen and Ford earlier than becoming a member of Toyota, is once more on restricted obligation this 12 months. So if Evans can attain the highest step on the finish of 2024, maybe he’ll get a particular Yaris in 2025.
Toyota launched the 2 particular hatches on the just-concluded Monte Carlo Rally (that Hyundai received). The automaker plans to carry a lottery in Japan to decide on consumers, these fortunate sufficient to take one house will obtain further perks resembling their names on Toyota’s WRC automobiles for the remainder of the 2024 season, and particular entry to the Toyota staff throughout Rally Japan.