In late January, Toyota announced its long-awaited return to the World Rally Championship for the first time since the withdrawal of its factory team in 1999.
That season saw the team win the last of three manufacturers’ titles and marked the end of more than 25 years of continuous rally activity at Toyota’s Cologne-based Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG).
During those years, Toyota captured 43 rally wins in iconic cars like the Celica Twincam Turbo and GT-Four and the Corolla WRCar with top drivers like Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen.
Now a source close to Toyota has revealed that the company’s new WRC entry will be based on the next-generation Yaris (called Vitz in Japan) due in 2016, and it will pack a turbocharged 1.6 litre inline four-cylinder engine producing upwards of 224kW.
Toyota's return to the WRC has been led by Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda, who carries the nickname in Japan of Morizo and who himself has been dabbling in rally competition piloting a Toyota 86 car over the past few years. He was also seen testing the Yaris WRC prototype in Europe recently.
To meet FIA homologation regulations and qualify for entry in the 2017 WRC, Toyota must sell at least 2500 rally-spec versions of its new Yaris hatch. Given the popularity of the car in Europe, that task should be easy.
Based on information gained from its sources Japan’s Best Car magazine has published an artist’s impression of what it believes the car will look when it surfaces in 2016 (pictured).
Using a prototype based on the current Yaris, Toyota tested its WRCar's potential in France and Belgium last year. This year Toyota will evaluate the car on tarmac roads in Italy and several other well-known stages.
Following in the footsteps of popular WRC-mimicking models like the limited edition VW Polo R and Citroen DS3 Racing – neither of which are sold here – yet), the Yaris WRC car will employ flared wheel-arches and a rear wing and well as other bespoke aerodynamic devices.
Naturally, however, the “return to competition” Yaris WRC celebration model that will be available to the public will not come with the same engine as the fully blown WRC machine.
Our source says Toyota is readying a less powerful 175kW/350Nm 2.0 litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine – the same as the one seen in the Lexus NX 200t.
Nevertheless, matched to a six-speed manual transmission, it should deliver substantially better acceleration than the 80kW/141Nm 1.5-litre petrol four that powers all versions of the current Yaris, except the entry-level 63kW/121Nm 1.3.
It's not yet clear if the next-generation Yaris hot hatch will be sold outside Europe – or how many Toyota will build — our insider says it will cost around the same as the Polo R, at around 33,900 Euros (about $A47,000).
Images: Best car magazine