You do Gazoo: Toyota ushers in the age of Gazoo Racing

Just when you thought it was safe to head back into the water, Toyota Indonesia unveiled all the models decked with some wonderful Gazoo Racing go-fast bits. 

The GR Sport line is Toyota's way of trickling down the looks and some features of its Gazoo Racing halo models by making their aspirational qualities more accessible to Toyota fans — similar to what it did via TRD (or Toyota Racing Development). This allows customers with options to drive home with their favorite Toyota models such as the Wigo, Avanza, Yaris, Rush and Fortuner clad in original and official Toyota swag — joining the Toyota Vios GR Sport released earlier this year. If you're ready for some eye candy, here are some of the models announced in Indonesia — and we hope will be made available here as well.

Toyota Fortuner GR Sport

The Toyota Fortuner has always been a fan favorite and is on top of a lot of car buyers' minds when purchasing a new midsize SUV. The long waiting time to get a hold of one when it was introduced for the very first time in the early 2000s is proof of just how much we love the Fortuner. It democratized SUVs in an era when these were only made available for politicians, businessmen and the occasional gambling ace. 

Thanks to Toyota's Gazoo Racing program, the Toyota Fortuner GR Sport is now even more menacing with the front bumper all sorted out with a blacked-out grill and tapered LED headlights. Implementing a front chin spoiler and new fog lamp housing cluster completes the overall look. 

At the back, you have an imposing and rather substantial rear spoiler and rear diffuser bearing one of the many GR badges which can be found all around the Fortuner, lest you forget what variant this is. Special GR Sport 18-inch mags with 265/60 R18 tires complete the entire look of this special midsized SUV.

Toyota Rush GR Sport

If you think that the Fortuner seems to be too big and way too out of your budget but still need a capable and SUV with Gazoo Racing styling out of the box, look no further than the the Toyota Rush GR Sport.

The Toyota Rush in itself is a pretty special vehicle, doing battle in a sea of front-wheel-drive unibody crossovers. It goes against the grain by taking the opposite route and shows off its actual SUV chops by offering a ladder on frame construction and a rear wheel drive configuration. This allow the Toyota Rush more stability on whatever road condition. 

Exterior-wise, Toyota Rush GR Sport adds nice bodykits such as wrap-around body skirts and rear spoilers. It also has chunky 17-inch alloy wheels with 215 60 R17 tires.

Toyota Veloz (Avanza) GR Limited

If you're unsatisfied with what the GR Sport treatment has done to the previous items on this list, here's a little palette cleanse for you. I've always been critical of the Avanza, questioning its existence especially with the introduction of the Toyota Rush. My justification is that at least those looking for a larger vehicle in Toyota's lineup  could find this in their roster.

Well how do you like the Avanza now? It certainly looks a whole lot different from the vanilla version thanks to a little injection of some Gazoo Racing magic in this GR Limited Trim.

The Toyota Avanza GR Limited has nice front chin spoiler with a prominent GR emblem, and is mirrored by a rear skirt and diffuser. It now comes with additional sporty contrasting bits like the blacked-out mags and side mirrors which I just love. We also see some changes on the inside thanks to a blacked-out motif, push start button and new digital A/C controls.

Toyota Agya (Wigo) GR Sport

The Toyota Wigo is a fun little hatch and is easily the most affordable way to buy into Toyota's plan for world domination with Gazoo Racing. Born out of necessity in the early 2010s, the Toyota Wigo, has continuously received various facelifts in its lifetime to make sure that it stays ahead of the competition. 

Now that GR is at the helm of Toyota's rally and racing aspirations, the Wigo wasn't left out and forgotten, and it now has that sweet GR badge to inspire owners. It still looks exactly like the previous Wigo TRD S but instead of fun and colorful red stripes to accentuate the wrap around bodykits, the theme is to go black. Most notably is the rear blacked-out spoiler and front chin, giving this mighty mite an even more aggressive air to it than it already has thanks to those angry headlights.

Some might find the lack of significant changes between the Wigo TRD S and the Wigo GR Sport disappointing, but given that the current sporty variant looks pretty wild as it is, I understand why minimal changes were made to the overall look.

Toyota Yaris GR Sport

Now before you start waving pitchforks at me and demanding the heads of Gazoo Racing executives for releasing a GR Sport variant of the Yaris when the GR Yaris already exists, let's put things into some context. The GR Yaris was never meant to be a daily driver; there are so many things that the GR Yaris can NOT do that the regular old Yaris can and the need to bring down some love from that same GR Yaris to the vanilla one is even more telling of how Toyota cares about the everyday car buyer.

For starters, the GR Yaris might be able to seat five people, but not in the same relative comfort as the regular Yaris. The homologation version also only comes in a manual transmission, with an unforgiving, sports-tuned lightweight flywheel at that which is going to be a pain to drive in traffic. Enter the Yaris GR Sport. 

It has about 75% of the looks of the GR Yaris, with its wrap-around bodykit and radical-looking rear wing. This of course makes makes it significantly more sporty than the standard Toyota Yaris. It might not be as fast as the GR Yaris, not by a long shot, but it certainly looks like it at a fraction of the cost.

That, my friends, may be the point of all this. I'm willing to bet that about 99% of Toyota's customers will never in their dreams be able to afford or are willing to let go with a significant sum of money for their legit Gazoo Racing models like the GR Yaris or the GR Supra and maybe even the upcoming GR 86. But that doesn't mean that they can drive in the same spirit as those cars.

Local pricing for these models have not been confirmed but if you're curious as to what the prices are over in Indonesia The Yaris GR is priced at IDR248,300,000 while the Agya (Wigo) GR Sport is at IDR144,900,000. For their MPVs and SUVs, the Rush GR Sport is priced at IDR245,000,000, the Fortuner GR Sport at IDR484,600,000and the Veloz GR Limited can be taken home for IDR221,400,000.

I have to commend Toyota for introducing these souped-up models for everyone to enjoy. Now it's up to Toyota Motor Philippines to pick the pace up and bring these models over to our market and everyone can have some Gazoo Racing fun in their lives.

Photos from Toyota Motors Indonesia