Inside the homegrown Toyota GR Yaris racer

The wraps have come off the hottest Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch yet. And it’s Australian.

Forget about the sold-out, hot-ticket 2020 GR Yaris, or the soon-to-launch 2021 GR Yaris Rallye, and meet the Toyota GR Yaris AP4.

Developed in Canberra by Toyota stalwarts Neal Bates Motorsport (NBM), the AP4 is designed to conquer the Australian Rally Championship (ARC).

And it gets its first test in a couple of weeks on home soil when the ARC wheelspins into action for 2021 with the National Capital Rally.

If you’ve any knowledge of Australian rallying you’ll know who four-time ARC champ Neal Bates is and of his links with Toyota that stretch back to the late 1980s.

These days Neal’s sons Harry and Lewis are at the forefront of Toyota and NBM’s Australian rallying efforts. In fact, the last time the ARC was conducted pre-COVID in 2019, Harry led Lewis home in a triumphant Toyota and NBM 1-2.

Back then they were driving the previous-generation Yaris AP4, a car also developed locally by NBM.

So just to backtrack a little here and explain what an AP4 – or Asia-Pacific 4WD – rally car is.

Essentially, it’s a localised version of what’s known globally as Rally2 or R5, which is one step down from the fire-breathing WRC cars we see the likes of world champ Sebastien Ogier driving.

Rally2 stipulates 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engines, a four-wheel drive system locked 50:50 front-to-rear and a minimum class kerb weight of 1230kg.

Max power output for the category is more than 200kW and max torque more than 370Nm. Considering the GR Yaris road car makes those numbers precisely, you can see it was developed with rallying in mind!

At the global level, Rally2 includes the Citroen C3, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai i20 and Skoda Fabia among its eligible models.

AP4 cars don’t have to go through the expensive global R2 homologation process and are at least theoretically cheaper to build and run while offering roughly the same performance.

But in reality only a few local teams have gone through the process of exploiting the rules to build their own cars and Neal Bates says you could expect no change from $300,000 if you asked him to build a GR Yaris AP4.

So, why this is a world-first?

Toyota’s motorsport and high-performance arm Gazoo Racing (GR) had been developing a version of the GR Yaris for WRC (and allegedly an R5 version too), but that was halted by the COVID crisis.

That left the NBM GR Yaris AP4 as a world leader, the first development of the car for rallying. And it comes with Toyota’s blessing and support.

In fact, Toyota Gazoo Racing in Germany was a key partner in developing the GR Yaris’ triple-cylinder engine for the AP4 project. It’s a first for NBM to have so much Cologne co-operation under the bonnet.

This is the mob that has run WRC and WEC programs for Toyota and was responsible for Toyota’s F1 effort in the 2000s.

Neal Bates said he was excited about what this new co-operation could deliver. The triple’s long-stroke design and slightly smaller Garrett turbocharger is expected to deliver advantages compared to its four-cylinder predecessor.

“This engine should make power lower down and have a bigger spread. It should pull out of the corner better,” he said.

The other big deal for the GR Yaris will be its lower weight and lower centre of gravity, something NBM chief engineer Darryl Bush predicts will produce more speed.

“When you look at the carbon-fibre roof it is five kilos lighter than a steel roof, so that is an advantage for us,” he explained.

“Then you look at the floor height to the roof height and that is actually a lot smaller than the old Yaris is. So everything is just that little bit more compact.

“We will end up with a better centre of gravity. So I think the cornering power of this car will be better and that’s what we want: more cornering power.”

The first hint the AP4 project was underway came last year when a series of social media posts hinted at development work at Toyota Australia’s Port Melbourne design office.

It didn’t take long to figure out they were working on bodywork for the GR Yaris AP4, something confirmed when illustrations of the complete rally car were issued to coincide with the launch of the road-going GR Yaris in late 2020.

The response to the car has been massive globally, with dozens of stories published and millions of views claimed.

Of course, those images showed off the look of the car. Now, the two NBM rally racers are the real deal, with the first test runs conducted only days ago.

Since October when NBM started work on its GR Yaris AP4s, two production cars have been stripped back to the bodyshell, strengthened and pruned of anything not required to go fast.

Dedicated MacPherson strut suspension, AP Racing brakes and French Sadev gearbox and hydraulic steering have been added.

As it always does, NBM has made a long list of its own parts, or got local suppliers to do them; crossmembers, suspension arms, bell housing, sump guard, engine mounts, diff guards, seat mounts and the rollcage.

While that’s an extensive list, NBM was a long way ahead with the GR Yaris compared to its predecessor because it was already all-wheel drive and therefore had rear chassis rails and inner guards that didn’t need to be tubbed to fit suspension.

In the end, not that much is actually left of the production car.

“People look at rally cars as a modified road car that goes out and thrash around the forest,” explained Neal Bates. “But really they are a V8 Supercars for the gravel.”

Originally scheduled for this weekend, the National Capital Rally has been delayed to April 9-11 because of the heavy weather hitting eastern Australia.