The Toyota GR Yaris premieres at Tokyo Auto Salon

Toyota has premiered the new GR Yaris, a homologation model born to win the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

Sales of the GR Yaris will commence in mid-2020, but Toyota has also began accepting online-only pre-orders in Japan for two special editions of the new model - the RZ 'First Edition' and the RZ 'High-performance First Edition'. Pre-orders will be accepted from 10 January to 30 June 2020.

Toyota developed the GR Yaris together with Tommi Makinen Racing from the ground up to be a WRC winner, as an original model of Toyota Gazoo Racing's sports car lineup.

The GR Yaris employs a four-wheel drive platform built on a Toyota New Global Architecture platform. Taking feedback from real WRC experiences, Toyota Gazoo Racing built the GR Yaris from scratch to achieve a high-rigidity body with refined balance while also optimising front and rear suspension geometry. The upper body of the car utilises aluminium for the hood, trunk lid, and door panels, and features a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic roof panel to keep the centre of gravity low. The three-door body also delivers excellent aerodynamic performance while keeping total weight low.

The GR Yaris is available with a 1.6-litre three-cylinder direct-injection turbocharged engine. Extensive use of lightweight components as well as an optimised turbocharger and air intake and exhaust system allows the engine to achieve the world's highest output for a three-cylinder engine, with 268bhp, as well as 370Nm of torque.

Power is put to the road via a six-speed Intelligent Manual Transmission and a newly developed 'GR-FOUR' sports four-wheel drive system, which uses a multi-plate clutch to distribute driving force between the front and rear wheels with minimal frictional loss.

Production will be carried out on a dedicated production line at Toyota's Motomachi Plant, which has a long and solid track record of manufacturing sports cars, and Toyota is currently planning for assembly to only be carried out by team members which have achieved the rank of Master Craftsperson, or 'Takumi'.

The special-edition RZ 'First Edition', comes with a customised front grille, front side diffusers, rear spoiler, and rear diffuser, all finished in matte black. Additionally, the special-edition RZ 'High-performance First Edition' features high performance modifications including a Torsen limited-slip differential, an intercooler with cooling-spray function, and BBS forged aluminium wheels.