“Hot Hatches Don’t Get Any Better:” What Car? Award Completes Clean-Sweep for the Toyota GR Yaris
The Toyota GR Yaris has been crowned Hot Hatch of the Year in the What Car? Awards, completing an impressive clean-sweep of honours. It has now won every major UK motoring media award for which it has been eligible since its launch just nine weeks ago.
Announcing the award, What Car? Editor Steve Huntingford said: “The GR Yaris is a truly special machine that feels tailor-made for tackling a British B-road. With its small proportions, clever four-wheel drive system and firecracker of an engine, its performance is incredibly accessible. Yet it’s also fast enough to frighten thoroughbred sports cars.
“For pure driving thrills, hot hatches don’t get any better.”
His views join a unanimous chorus of media praise for the car, helping make GR Yaris one of the most in-demand models on the market.
Here’s a recap of Toyota’s reports on the honours GR Yaris has collected since its UK launch:-
- Car of the Year and Hot Hatch of the Year, carwow
- Hot Hatch of the Year, evo
- Hot Hatch of the Year, Top Gear Magazine
- Best Hot Hatch of 2020, Autocar
- Hot Hatch of the Year, Car
GR Yaris stands apart from most hot hatches in being developed from the ground up as a thoroughbred machine, in effect a “homologation special” engineered with direct input from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s World Rally Championship-winning team and technical experts at its WRC partner Tommi Mäkinen Racing.
Although it shares a name with Toyota’s hybrid hatchback, the only parts shared between the two models are the front and rear lights, door mirrors and antenna. Everything else is bespoke, including the chassis (developed from Toyota’s GA-B and GA-C platforms), three-door bodyshell, 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo engine and GR-Four all-wheel drive system. These are combined with rigid, lightweight construction and agile and responsive handling to create a car that delivers on its promise of being an affordable road that has the essential qualities of a competition model.
ENDS
