Toyota released new teaser for a 3-door GR Yaris having fun in the sand

MANILA: Toyota Motors just released a teaser video of a Toyota GR Yaris hatchback shrouded in groovy camouflage having a hell of a ride in the sand.

Interestingly enough, the GR-spec version of the subcompact sedan featured on the teaser video has a three-door layout as opposed to the 5-door hatchback spotted racing at the Green Hell track in Nürburgring, Germany. Will Toyota be offering the GR Yaris in two different body styles?

Or could it also be that the one spotted on the German racetrack was not the same GR version being teased on the video? For what it’s worth, GRMN-spec Yaris also had just three doors. And in the totem pole of the Toyota sports car, GRMN is at the top of the pole, above the midrange GR, and the entry-level GR sport at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Besides the teaser, Toyota has yet to reveal any technical details only mentioning that the GR Yaris will integrate “all the technologies, knowledge, and experience” it has amassed through the success of its World Rally Championship (WRC) campaign, where it won the drivers’ title for this year.

But based on the performance of the Gr Yaris on the video, the Toyota hatchback may have an all-wheel-drive system and other under the hood upgrades adapted from WRC. It is highly plausible that power will come from a four-cylinder engine partnered to a manual gearbox.

Another puzzling query we have is if the GR Yaris will be a regular production vehicle or a limited-run model like the supercharged Yaris GRMN—Toyota assembled only 400 units of those for the European market.

All these questions would be answered when GR Yaris will finally be unveiled next year during the Tokyo Auto Salon 2020 happening from January 10 to 12, 2020. The GR Yaris prototype was supposed to be revealed during the season-closing Rally Australia last month. However,

the devastating wildfires happening in the New South Wales region forced the cancellation of the event and thus, also the GR Yaris preview. It is anybody’s guess if the Toyota subcompact hatchback will still be launched in prototype form come January or in its full glory. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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