Toy­ota GR Yaris — The Pock­et Rock­et Gro­cery Get­ter

The GR Yaris, when a reg­u­lar Toy­ota’s gro­cery get­ter- mod­el is heav­i­ly influ­enced by their ral­ly her­itage. As a stock car it is already fun as it is, but what if we spiced it up a bit?

The nim­ble, mod­ern and heav­i­ly motor­sports influ­enced Yaris has proven to be an excel­lent plat­form for tuners and track enthu­si­asts. At its heart lies the 3‑cylinder, direct-inject­ed, tur­bocharged G16E-GTS engine, paired with a sophis­ti­cat­ed all-wheel-dri­ve sys­tem. Even in stock form, it pro­duces an impres­sive 290 hp and 400 Nm — remark­able num­bers for a mass pro­duced 3- cylin­der engine.

With a series of tar­get­ed mod­i­fi­ca­tions, we extract­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly more pow­er while enhanc­ing the car’s han­dling. The result is a razor-sharp track machine that remains incred­i­bly fun and engag­ing as a dai­ly dri­ver.

What we did

Exhaust & Forced Induc­tion

The forced-induc­tion pack­age has been com­plete­ly over­hauled for per­for­mance and reli­a­bil­i­ty. An Even­turi intake feeds fresh air into a Gar­rett G25-550 tur­bocharg­er, mount­ed to a Lam­speed exhaust man­i­fold for smooth, effi­cient flow. Charge air is cooled by a HKS front-mount inter­cool­er and pip­ing, keep­ing tem­per­a­tures in check under load. Boost con­trol is han­dled with a Tur­bosmart 45mm exter­nal waste­gate paired with a dump valve. On the back end, spent gas­es exit through a 4‑inch high-flow down­pipe and con­tin­ue into an Akrapovic cat-back exhaust, ensur­ing max­i­mum response and an aggres­sive exhaust note.

Engine Sup­port­ing Mod­i­fi­ca­tions

To with­stand high­er cylin­der pres­sures, the engine has been rein­forced with heavy-duty head studs and per­for­mance valve springs, ensur­ing sta­bil­i­ty at ele­vat­ed RPMs. Cool­ing capac­i­ty is enhanced with aux­il­iary oil cool­ers for both the engine and front dif­fer­en­tial, main­tain­ing reli­a­bil­i­ty under sus­tained load. The fuel­ing sys­tem is upgrad­ed with high-flow low-pres­sure injec­tors deliv­er­ing the pre­cise fuel vol­ume need­ed for increased pow­er out­put.

Sus­pen­sion & Dri­ve­train

Pow­er deliv­ery is man­aged by an X‑Shift 6‑speed sequen­tial gear­box, paired with an Ogu­ra twin-disc clutch to han­dle the added torque with­out slip­page. The stock dri­ve­train rear axle over­drive was cor­rect­ed by fit­ting a matched front dif­fer­en­tial ratio that deliv­ers bal­anced trac­tion and improved sta­bil­i­ty. Sus­pen­sion is upgrad­ed with KW coilovers, pro­vid­ing full adjusta­bil­i­ty and improved chas­sis response both on road and track.

Elec­tri­cal & Con­trol Sys­tems

The fac­to­ry ECU has been replaced with a MoTeC M142 Yaris plug-and-play kit, unlock­ing advanced func­tion­al­i­ty and pre­cise con­trol. This sys­tem allows for full tun­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty and motor­sport-lev­el fea­tures such as anti-lag and pre­cise boost con­trol, ensur­ing the car remains respon­sive and com­pet­i­tive under any dri­ving con­di­tions.

SPECS

• 1.6L DI-Tur­bo 3‑cylinder G16E-GTS
• Upgrad­ed Valve Springs and Head Studs
• Gar­rett G25-550, Lam­speed Exhaust Man­i­fold
• 4″ Down­pipe with Akrapovic Exhaust
• HKS Inter­cool­er and plumb­ing
• MoTeC M142 Plug-And-Play GR Yaris- kit
• X‑Shift Sequen­tial Gear­box with Even Ratio Front Dif­fer­en­tial
• Ogu­ra Twin Disc Clutch
• KW Coilover Sus­pen­sion
• 470hp/500Nm