TOYOTA GR YARIS, VW GOLF GTI & HONDA CIVIC TYPE R
‘THE CIVIC HAS A DEPTH OF CLASS YOU DON’T NORMALLY ASSOCIATE WITH A HOT HATCH’
UNSURPRISINGLY, THE YARIS ATTRACTS THE most attention among the hatchbacks. Yes, that’s the latest FK8 Civic Type R in Racing Blue and a German-registered, all-new Golf GTI, but will you look at this little Toyota?! We’re lucky it’s here at all. Strings have been pulled, and on day two it rolled into the Anglesey pitlane wearing show plates because there hadn’t been time to register it.
Subaru and Mitsubishi seemed to be delivering rally specials every couple of months when evo was born 22 years ago, but it’s been years since we’ve seen a car like the GR Yaris. Arguably, this is more special than any Impreza or Evo because there wasn’t a three-door, four-wheel-drive Yaris until Toyota gave Gazoo Racing the go-ahead to make one.
They haven’t held back. Take the engine, on paper a modest-sounding 1.6-litre in-line triple, but it produces 257bhp, 15bhp more than the Golf’s 2-litre four-cylinder. Then there’s four-wheel drive with selectable torque distribution. The default gives
