Toyota GR Yaris; Porsche Cayman GT4; BMW M2 Competition
Discussion
Hello everyone I am here to share my experiences and the memories I have been creating with this great, small, piece of kit. Because all great stories start with a beginning this was my first contact with the Yaris:
Back in November 2020, on a raining Wednesday I got to test drive the Yaris and the car stayed in my head for a couple of days after.
I did about 50km on mountain roads at a spirited pace and the car felt great! The seller insisted on coming with me for the ride. He started by giving a very basic introduction to the car, mentioning some of the points that all of us know from YouTube, but clearly the GR is not the normal Prius sold by Toyota.
He made some allusions to the refined dynamics and the agility that the car has when changing direction. Fun fact: He praised the presence of a roof handle bar in the passenger seat, unique among the Yaris. It would prove useful for him during the trip, good eye.
The test drive started in the city, always at moderate speeds. When I sat in the car the first shock was the high, but extremely ergonomic, driving position. The location of all the important elements are where you would expect. Very quickly I felt like a fish in water.
The destination was one of the many castles around the area where I live. As soon as the city driving was over, it was possible to open up the throttle and do a couple of easy overtakes. A positive note for the engine. When I slowed down to enter the next village, I could feel some positive feedback coming from the brakes.
Free from the urban circuit was time to push. And how wonderful. The engine is really entertaning, a bit laggy at low revs, but who cares? It pulls all the way to red line just above 7000rpm. Runs happily and effortlessly at 4-5000rpm, with little throttle load.
The fake sound coming from the speakers, combined with the admission and LSD noises is cool and really makes want you to push further. For purists, it is possible to decode the speakers via OBD, but as far as I could notice it is not completely false, but simply an amplification of the existing sound. Would switch off for longer trips.
The seller suffered a fair bit. From time to time he would tell me to "be careful" and that he liked that the customers got a feel for the car but that those rhythms maybe only "after buying". Well I was there to try the car out, and I wanted to know what I could expect from the small Toyota.
Driving at around 8/10th, strong braking on the ABS but with plenty of safety distance before the next turn, leaving some margin at turn-in and leaving the turn hard on the gas.
Brake feel was good. But it will certainly benefit from more aggressive pads and braided steel lines. I didn't notice any fatigue, but they certainly got quite hot. When I took a short break, before starting my way back, the cabin was flooded with a pleasant smell of tire and pad. Of course, the seller asked to cool the car on the way back
. A negative note for the emergency system that turns on the hazard lights for "emergency" braking, it was "always" coming up and it can't be switched off.
As a final note, I would like to again highlight the ergonomics. The steering wheel has the right diameter, good grip and thickness. The gearbox is a stick, it has a very short throw, and all the gear gates are well defined. I think the only thing missing is a little bit more feedback when the gear has really engaged. At first I found myself, due to the short throw, wondering whether the gear was in or not. The ratios are very short, the second gear runs out before 100km / h.
As a follow-up I exchanged some emails with the seller in which he said the following "Die Probefahrt war sehr spannend!". Which can be translated as "The test drive was very exciting!".
As a note I would like to say that I have no pleasure in putting people with me in the car in fear, and I try to do everything within my capabilities to stay safe. Usually I always do my test drives on my own, this dealership unfortunately had a policy in-place for the GR that all test drives had to be monitored...and I really want to try the car out, and of course I wouldn't be able to do it driving like a granny in a hybrid Yaris.
In a later conversation, he (the salesperson) also confessed that on the same day in the afternoon he had another 40-50 year old guy trying the car out. He recommended him to drive the same route as I did 😁, but that he wanted to go to highway and drive over >200 km/h ... Clearly a disappointment for him given the morning's experience.
I couldn't take the car out of my head, so I went back after a couple of days and a deal was made. This are the first photos I took from the car when it got delivered to the dealership:
Back in November 2020, on a raining Wednesday I got to test drive the Yaris and the car stayed in my head for a couple of days after.
I did about 50km on mountain roads at a spirited pace and the car felt great! The seller insisted on coming with me for the ride. He started by giving a very basic introduction to the car, mentioning some of the points that all of us know from YouTube, but clearly the GR is not the normal Prius sold by Toyota.
He made some allusions to the refined dynamics and the agility that the car has when changing direction. Fun fact: He praised the presence of a roof handle bar in the passenger seat, unique among the Yaris. It would prove useful for him during the trip, good eye.
The test drive started in the city, always at moderate speeds. When I sat in the car the first shock was the high, but extremely ergonomic, driving position. The location of all the important elements are where you would expect. Very quickly I felt like a fish in water.
The destination was one of the many castles around the area where I live. As soon as the city driving was over, it was possible to open up the throttle and do a couple of easy overtakes. A positive note for the engine. When I slowed down to enter the next village, I could feel some positive feedback coming from the brakes.
Free from the urban circuit was time to push. And how wonderful. The engine is really entertaning, a bit laggy at low revs, but who cares? It pulls all the way to red line just above 7000rpm. Runs happily and effortlessly at 4-5000rpm, with little throttle load.
The fake sound coming from the speakers, combined with the admission and LSD noises is cool and really makes want you to push further. For purists, it is possible to decode the speakers via OBD, but as far as I could notice it is not completely false, but simply an amplification of the existing sound. Would switch off for longer trips.
The seller suffered a fair bit. From time to time he would tell me to "be careful" and that he liked that the customers got a feel for the car but that those rhythms maybe only "after buying". Well I was there to try the car out, and I wanted to know what I could expect from the small Toyota.
Driving at around 8/10th, strong braking on the ABS but with plenty of safety distance before the next turn, leaving some margin at turn-in and leaving the turn hard on the gas.
Brake feel was good. But it will certainly benefit from more aggressive pads and braided steel lines. I didn't notice any fatigue, but they certainly got quite hot. When I took a short break, before starting my way back, the cabin was flooded with a pleasant smell of tire and pad. Of course, the seller asked to cool the car on the way back
. A negative note for the emergency system that turns on the hazard lights for "emergency" braking, it was "always" coming up and it can't be switched off.As a final note, I would like to again highlight the ergonomics. The steering wheel has the right diameter, good grip and thickness. The gearbox is a stick, it has a very short throw, and all the gear gates are well defined. I think the only thing missing is a little bit more feedback when the gear has really engaged. At first I found myself, due to the short throw, wondering whether the gear was in or not. The ratios are very short, the second gear runs out before 100km / h.
As a follow-up I exchanged some emails with the seller in which he said the following "Die Probefahrt war sehr spannend!". Which can be translated as "The test drive was very exciting!".
As a note I would like to say that I have no pleasure in putting people with me in the car in fear, and I try to do everything within my capabilities to stay safe. Usually I always do my test drives on my own, this dealership unfortunately had a policy in-place for the GR that all test drives had to be monitored...and I really want to try the car out, and of course I wouldn't be able to do it driving like a granny in a hybrid Yaris.
In a later conversation, he (the salesperson) also confessed that on the same day in the afternoon he had another 40-50 year old guy trying the car out. He recommended him to drive the same route as I did 😁, but that he wanted to go to highway and drive over >200 km/h ... Clearly a disappointment for him given the morning's experience.
I couldn't take the car out of my head, so I went back after a couple of days and a deal was made. This are the first photos I took from the car when it got delivered to the dealership:
will people stop buying these, there wont be any left for me soon lol
fantastic car with already a huge amount of mods available
sounds like your in Germany, i can recomend checking out the Apex GR Yaris which has had suspension, lowered seat etc. mods from Manthey Racings daughter company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxVExZUIBc
fantastic car with already a huge amount of mods available
sounds like your in Germany, i can recomend checking out the Apex GR Yaris which has had suspension, lowered seat etc. mods from Manthey Racings daughter company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxVExZUIBc
Dave Hedgehog said:
will people stop buying these, there wont be any left for me soon lol
fantastic car with already a huge amount of mods available
sounds like your in Germany, i can recomend checking out the Apex GR Yaris which has had suspension, lowered seat etc. mods from Manthey Racings daughter company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxVExZUIBc
I got mine "long" ago. Has been with me since early December 2020. I like to drive mine hard, and do a fair bit of track work with it, I do know about Apex's Yaris but that for me it's too much money pilled into such a small car. I bought the Yaris because it was relatively affordable, I don't want to spend 10k on mods. Up until today I only did price conscious modifications:fantastic car with already a huge amount of mods available
sounds like your in Germany, i can recomend checking out the Apex GR Yaris which has had suspension, lowered seat etc. mods from Manthey Racings daughter company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxVExZUIBc
- Braided steel brake lines
- RBF 660 Brake Fluid
- Michelin Cup 2 tires mounted on 18x8" wheels with ET35mm
Next up are eccentric screws to get more camber from the front, and some aftermarket brake pads because I am already on my 3rd set. The stock pads work well but they don't last long.
amokwa said:
Great post and a superb car, there is a whole thread on the GR in the Toyota section of the Japanese Cars forum. Nice GT4 next to it too.
Thank you! Yes the GT4 was the most irrational, best purchase that I have ever made. Was the single car that I had for almost a year.p4cks said:
Superb. I will own one of these at some point.
Thanks!Still during winter. I swapped cars with a friend that owns an M2 Comp.
The ‘hazards coming on for emergency braking’ is an upcoming legal requirement I believe.
Did the car take over the emergency brake assist or did you initiate it?
I understand on cars that have this, once you reach a certain level of deceleration, it optimises that to a controllable maximum, and applies hazards as you come to a stop. The hazards go off if you move off again.
Did the car take over the emergency brake assist or did you initiate it?
I understand on cars that have this, once you reach a certain level of deceleration, it optimises that to a controllable maximum, and applies hazards as you come to a stop. The hazards go off if you move off again.
Pica-Pica said:
The ‘hazards coming on for emergency braking’ is an upcoming legal requirement I believe.
Did the car take over the emergency brake assist or did you initiate it?
I understand on cars that have this, once you reach a certain level of deceleration, it optimises that to a controllable maximum, and applies hazards as you come to a stop. The hazards go off if you move off again.
If you switch the car to "Expert" or to "all-off" the automatic break assist goes off. The hazards function independently and my guess is that they are purely based on deceleration. They problem is that they make some annoying noise (the typical click) and when you are hooning around they keep going off every minute... For example my GT4 just quickly flashes the brake lights in case of a strong deceleration, you are clueless about this as a driver. The hazards only come on if you come to a full stop. Which in my perspective is a much better implementation, and a lot less intrusive when you are "at it".Did the car take over the emergency brake assist or did you initiate it?
I understand on cars that have this, once you reach a certain level of deceleration, it optimises that to a controllable maximum, and applies hazards as you come to a stop. The hazards go off if you move off again.
scottos said:
Awesome, i had one for the whole weekend a couple of weeks back and quickly got my order in. So did 2 friends i took out in my loaner and then another friend that heard us raving on about it also did 
i'm looking forward to getting it and enjoying it as much as you!
Great choice i'm looking forward to getting it and enjoying it as much as you!, and good influence!
scottos said:
That looks like a lot of fun and so capable with minimal modifications too!
Yeah for sure. I see the car as a "cheap", and fun, track tool. I've only done changes when I felt the default hardware was really holding me down. Brake lines and fluid was 100% needed, it was getting cooked quickly. Then I have switched out of the PS4S because they would overheat after 2 laps giving it the beans. Now with the Cup2 the car has developed a fair bit of understeer, I already ordered the screws and I am aiming at adding 3 degrees of camber to the front.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff