Toyota Yaris GR4 4x4 Rally going into production.....

[Gibbo]

I've seen Litchfield are already pulling their Yaris apart. Worth keeping an eye on them. Although I hope they do more with it than they did for the Supra. Just 2 basic remaps and that's it. 1 with downpipe, 1 without.

Its a Toyota, just like your Supra I suspect the tuning options shall be endless, all I plan on is exhaust, weight reduction without changing interior and extra power but nothing too insane, 350 be a nice target with about 1200kg. The above video impresses me how it seems so capable on a circuit on stock suspension as its soft yet flat, can smash those curbs and cheat all day long.

Just comes across as a car that seems to do really well on both track and road in stock form whilst being really engaging to drive, a real rarity in the modern world of cars to be honest. I can see it being the car I use a lot to be honest as its a great all rounder as long as back seats and boot space is not a priority.

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Had an hour in the GR today and it lives upto the hype so keeping my order on but will comment on what I feel others have not touched on:

- It feels under powered to me but that could be because it’s mapped quite linear as in something happens low down and then it seems to find full boost 3500-4000 and seems to pull happy to 6500 before it feels like it’s dying off a little. In earlier post I said I felt 300HP would be enough in this car but chassis and brakes are so good I feel to make it more lively it needs 400.
- Steering feel, plenty of it, surprising amounts, I’d just got out the Aston which has some of the best steering feel of any car and was not disappointed. Also very direct!
- Clutch pedal is too light does not match the gearbox which feels great, lovely shift action just don’t rush it.
- Ride comfort is superb, pot holes are absorbed it has zero crash, makes you feel you truly rally the car.
- Car has a real solid build quality feel to it like you can rag it all day, rally it and track it, never worry about it breaking.
- Seat height to me fine and the rear mirror and infotainment never distracted me i found visibility great and car easy to place. The seats are hugely comfy!

Id say in the dry this risk being a boring car even though it’s full of feel as it has a real like it can take any corner at any speed feeling, the car also hides its speed amazing well just like a much bigger car would which is a negative thing. In the wet the grip is mind boggling, way beyond that off an EVO/Scoob I’d say maybe down to modern tyres, diffs either end and how little it weighs.

Did not like the retirement red colour, so glad gone with white.

I’ll definitely be voiding my warranty though and will go for 350-400HP unless the lack of performance was more down to being three up and the car only done 100 miles so not ran in.

The fake sound is fine but at cruise and idle it’s totally silent inside which makes you think your just driving regular shopping cart.

Chassis and brakes are class leading no wonder it can be a sting in the tail to a super car on a road or challenging circuit but it needs some live adding to it by way of more power and noise I feel, otherwise it’s a drive 10/10 car everywhere as it’s so capable and so feel some.

Can’t think of much else apart from IMT is rubbish and it’s mega easy to do yourself anyway, I averaged 21mpg and was driving for 59 minutes on mainly B roads.

The Abarth feels as fast maybe faster because of how poo it’s chassis is and the fact it has old school power delivery but the Abarth though fun is at heart a Fiat 500 whereas in the Yaris you know your driving something solid that was built by a race team, it’s very sorted and maybe a little too good.

Oh and the sales manager reckons due to demand and success Toyota will build more but he is expecting U.K. price to increase by 10% soon due to Brexit and other reasons as mainly Toyota don’t make a profit on them.

 

[Gibbo]

Yes as my interest is as a daily and I can sit on the motorway for hours so I did a stint on the M4 in the YGR with cruise enabled at 75, just a junction so a few miles, its perfectly fine, quiet, I should qualify that with in comparison to my MX5 and Abarth both of which have relatively poor refinement from road noise I actually arrive at the dealer from the motorway stint which led on to a dual carriageway when trying to drive how I would normally and not like a lost McRae and onbard said 39mpg, I doubt i would ever see that in reality, it likes revs too much.

It was a grey day and yes the red didn't pop, looked a bit drab.

I got to see red in sunlight, pictures on my Instagram and found in direct sunlight is was still a bit meh, the colours are quite a let down with this car, considering the cool colours you can get an Aygo in its thoroughly disappointing that the selection is white, white, black and retirement red.

Would look awesome in the purple or orange Toyota do the Aygo’s in and blue probably look great too.

Suspect more colours will come on later years or special editions.

 

[Gibbo]

Litchfield & RaceChip both have plugins ready @ 300bhp. Once the ECUs cracked I bet a big noisy induction and exhaust will see you at 330-340, exciting!

Litchfield do plug in boxes now?

 

[Gibbo]

https://www.facebook.com/146146868748619/posts/4048005675229366/?d=n

Probably just chucked their sticker on something generic.

True and prettt safe generally I think and un-dectable potentially unless ECU is monitoring boost levels etc, which being a modern car is likely. But 300HP for £300-500 be a bargain, get weight down to 1200kg and should make it a bit quicker.

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

I did also take some pictures, here is a couple, I feel in photos the red looks better than it does in the flesh which is quite unusual.
Quite excited about getting mine next year, looking forward to seeing what it can really do when I am alone and can properly push it a lot harder.







It is a great looking little car, that when you look in the mirrors reminds me of my 911 with those huge rear hips.

 

[Gibbo]

I liked the red in person, just didn't fancy it sat next to my red 4c. I think the white is more 'rally' and will suit it long term. I also quite like the idea of a black one with the wheels refinished in that Satin Aurum (?) Porsche colour? Bit flashy but would look cool I think.

Hoping mine will go into build before new years, ordered 16/11 and the ETA on the form is 12/3.

Mine has not gone into build yet either. cannot remember when I ordered mine, but was in November and my delivery date is 16/3.

 

[Gibbo]

This was an interesting watch, tight track so it's suited but impressive nevertheless.

Like you I've pretty much watched every video.

The one thing that surprises me is its ability on a circuit, normally these kind of cars, like Subaru's and EVO of this ilk tend to lose out to their RWD competition on a track day, particular in the dry, but the Yaris GR seems to be not only an incredible B road car but also an extremely capable track car too, which and the only thing I can think of is the lightweight of it, or maybe simply because its a far newer AWD system with diffs at both ends.

Not complaining either way, what I will say that maybe the regular none circuit pack car is a better more fun road car, as the one thing I did notice in my test drive of the circuit pack car, it is simply way too good on the road, it has too much grip as it is so sure footed even in miserable conditions, I've driven many EVO's and Scoob's but none of them gripped like the Yaris, but to be fair I think the lack of power in the Yaris is part of the reason, also the fact it is the only car to wear PS4S in 18" size too, so it has the best tyre, along with latest AWD system along with lightweight and differentials either end, it is just a grip monster.

I will get mine, drop some weight, see how it feels and then maybe drop in a race chip tuning box to see how that feels and then later down the line start making physical modifications, exhaust, proper remap etc. as I truly feel this car will need at least 350HP to feel alive and more towards 400, the chassis is simply that good.

But for a 260HP car it shoots well above its weight, I won't be going this extreme with mine, but imagine what it could do on track tyres, stripped to 1100kg and with 500HP.

 

[Gibbo]

May take a while as its a Denso ECU. They're notoriously difficult to work with unlike the Bosch ECU's MED17 based stuff for example, and other Bosch units. Its also very model specific, and ultimately companies need to make money from putting the work into cracking them which is why many Toyota ECU's do not have any remap options available.

Guess those who want big power will just add piggy back ECU's.

 

[Gibbo]

Pretty much what you would expect from the circuit vs normal, few seconds for the rubber the rest from the diffs, I mean the would you even fit the Dunlops to your shopping car

At 1280kg for its size it is not lightweight, I think it just has a nice balance to it and the suspension gives you decent confidence to carry some speed, I reckon once you put some good track tyres on its going to be hard to beat on a small track.

Would take the same alloys as my MX5 too, which is making some wedsports very appealling right now, I was considering going cheaper with some Bolas but if I go for the Yaris I can talk myself into it, both are lighter than stock at 0.7-1.2kg a wheel, I just couldn't put less than et45 on the Mazda without a big pull for 255s, in fact I have just been asking bola if they'd do a 47 so I could limit body mods to just flat arches but you would not want that offset on the yaris

I'd be fine with a tuning box, ran one for a long time on my Abarth and although it did blow turbo at the Nordshcliefe, I had turned it up to max and it was a long time a max boost there compared to anywhere else, when you consider the bodge it was in my case remap + box to get around limits taking it to ~ 230bhp I had it coming as a sensible man would have fitted at the very least a stuffed turbo, not me

Just let me confirm I am readin that right, you had your Abarth remapped, and then you added a tuning box to push it even further beyond the remap?


P.S. The app changed to processing and the dealer rang me to say it will be going to build soon and ETA has moved forward to March 5th.
Will get the Abarth listed in January and see if I can make a profit on it.

 

[Gibbo]

10 horsepower from bolting on a cat back, not bad, any weight saving?

With the tuning box be interesting to see what it gets, 310-315 maybe.

 

[Gibbo]

Tuning box without exhaust is doing 307, dte put a youtube up already I thought I posted it here.

That is good seems a tuning box with bolt-ons be good for 315-320 then, solid 50 over the stock dynos and I suspect a proper remap with bolt-ons be 330ish, maybe 350 top. Then bigger turbo time!

 

[Gibbo]

So managed to find the dyno from the OCuk powerstation dyno days which show the first few stages of progression stock, remap and remap + tmc box on 5, I ended up running this higher which probably lead to my issues, fuelling was fine, final before I put my car back to stock was something like 230bhp and 270lbs torque, which is plenty in a ~1135kg shopping trolly, so if you fancy more from your Abarth it does do something, key thing is fuel quality with these, they aggressively pull timing

DTE show the Yaris dynoing at the figures the exhaust guys are getting stock, also shows where the plugs are.

I might be over analysing but you can see a big torque dip down low with the tuning box which tells me the ECU detected something it did not like and pulled timing, thats only issue with tuning boxes, if turned up too high they can ruin the power / torque curve and have the ECU pulling timing or boost if its a bit aggressive.

 

[Gibbo]

Another one getting flipped:

https://www.romansinternational.com/used-vehicle-details/Toyota-Yaris-U9399/


Did the one at 42k sell?

 

[Gibbo]

The RS Fabrications owner wanted a compilation of him getting it sideways the other week.

So here we are:

Looking good and am also finding the performance he has extracted with just a tuning box very impressive with low 4s 0-60 times.

 

[Gibbo]

Testing with the DTUK tuning box + RS Fabrications 3" cat back. Video will be live at 7.30pm

Great improvement for bolt ons.
Are you hitting 60 in 2nd or 3rd?

 

[Gibbo]

It can... Just about.

But the timed runs were changing into 3rd to be fair.

When it gets a bit more dry again I'll be sure to try a launching just holding onto 2nd. I've already managed to get a warning about overheating the AWD though

Certainly keen to see what 60 you can manage by just holding onto 2nd, maybe a 4 flat as I know your quick at smashing gears from been a passenger with you lol.

Rapido. 4.4s for a manual car is very impressive, can’t wait for it now. Got Donington and Brands booked already, fingers crossed they go ahead.

Are all keyless cars a risk btw? Never had one before and I know certain brands are laughably easy to steal? Is Toyota one of them or not to worry? You can disable it I believe.

You can disable keyless entry using in car systems, you should do so, also store keys in one of those lines pouches or in a metal box, get a steering lock and disable or re-locate the OBD port. For added security maybe fit a decent alarm/immobiliser or fit a ghost.

 

[Gibbo]

The 0-60mph can definitely be improved when it's dry. Ringing it out in 2nd may yield even better results too.

The way this car launches for some reason reminds me of videos I used to see of the Audi RS2. It just squats and goes with minimal fuss!

Are you literally side stepping the clutch in this car at around 5000rpm, or are you easing it out?

 

[Gibbo]

"RUINED"... got to love the YouTuber dramatics to get views

The seating positioned never bothered me, so lowering the seat does not interest me, but maybe 6ft is the new short these days or maybe its just because of having a Clio 172 in the past and the Abarth which is also known for it and often complained about, for me the biggest priority is visibility and I found that fine even with the large rear view mirror and silly tablet sticking out the dash.

 

[Gibbo]

RS Fabrications have officially gone with their cat back and DTUK tuning box as a package that they're calling GR-RS300.

RS Fabrications GR-RS300 package for the Yaris GR consists of the following:

• 300ps 400nm
• High quality 3 inch cat back performance exhaust with specification of your choosing for looks and sound (for more information please see the RS Fabrications website)
• DTUK Tuning Box with custom maps designed with DTUK to work safely with RS Fabrications cat back exhaust
• Fake exhaust speaker sound (Engine Sound Enhancement and Active Noise Cancellation) completely disabled
• All installed at RS Fabrications

I expect with other standard cars having made 270bhp+ on other dynos (this car "only" made 265bhp standard) that this package will happily make over 300bhp too. But for now, on this dyno, I think that ~300bhp is a good figure for this little car, and it certainly makes a lot of difference to the way it drives.

Very nice what pricing does package start at, £1500ish ?