Wild Aussie Toyota GR Yaris 'Beast' to be unveiled

Toyota Australia is designing a ‘beast’ that carsales believes is a wild rally car version of the hot-selling Toyota GR Yaris hatch.

The company’s product planning and development division has teased the project on social media ahead of the car’s unveiling later this month, but revealed little more about it.

Courtesy of two posts we do know the project number is 116-4 and hints of what it entails courtesy of a caption that reads “designing the beast”.

There are two photographs posted, one of the front left-quarter of a Toyota GR Yaris and the other showing Toyota Australia design chief Nick Hogios posing with a digital rendering of the rear-side of the hot hatch.

So what is 116-4? We think it’s the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) version of the Toyota GR Yaris that Neal Bates Motorsport is developing to the local AP4 specifications.

The give-aways are the chunky off-road tyres that are obvious in both images.

Toyota Australia’s design gurus are no doubt making sure the ‘116-4’ looks the goods and their product development compatriots are helping the Bates squad out where appropriate.

In the post accompanying the pic of Hogios and the GR Yaris, the capabilities of Toyota Australia product planning development centre are explained: “The team is armed with extensive resources such as creative designers, studio engineers and state-of-the-art technologies including 3D printing and virtual reality.

“This advanced facility and the expertise of the team delivers a breadth of capabilities, from producing small parts and accessories to prototyping and building full concept cars.”

Aside from the social media evidence we also know Bates Motorsport has ordered two Yaris GRs.

Our conclusion also tallies with previous statements made by Toyota Australia as it has rolled out the sensational road-going version of the 200kW pocket rocket.

First, there was the announcement of the stunning $39,950 drive-away introductory price for the first 1000 buyers, during which Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley confirmed a Bates-run ARC program with the Yaris GR under the Gazoo Racing banner.

A few weeks later he told carsales that a rally program wasn’t yet confirmed, although the main thrust of that story was the first wave of Yaris GRs had almost sold out.

We’d interpret Hanley’s back-pedalling not as a sign the program was in any danger of not happening, but more building the suspense ahead of the program’s reveal.

Since then, Toyota Australia has confirmed a second batch of 100 Yaris GRs are available for order at $44,950, which is still nearly $5000 below the recommended retail price of $49,500 plus on-roads.

Toyota is also preparing a Rallye version of the Toyota GR Yaris – complete with Performance Pack parts including track-tuned suspension, front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials, 18-inch BBS alloys and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres – which will follow in 2021.

Neal Bates Motorsport has been Toyota’s rallying partner for many years and has more recently run the Toyota 86 road-racing series as well.

In the ARC it has most recently campaigned a locally-developed previous-generation Toyota Yaris to the AP4 regulations, which are for 1.6-litre turbo-petrol all-wheel drive machines.

Neal’s sons Harry and Lewis finished 1-2 in the 2019 championship.

The 2020 ARC was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.