What to do with a GR Yaris

[Northernboy]

I’ve a GR Yaris arriving at some point this year, and I’m buying it just to have some fun.

I know that it’s a homologation special, but t’as well as all of the good things that means, it also means that it’s been set up to manage the school run and going to Tesco.

If I want to turn it back into something a bit more extreme, longer-travel suspension, rally wheels, something that I actually could drive in Rallycross, or properly hammer down a back road, what would I need to do? Who’s the company to go for for this sort of work?

[Haltamer]

https://www.tegiwaimports.com/select-car/toyota/to...

Shop around, see what bits take your fancy :P

For an all in one package, The litchfield offering might be up your street. (Not quite the off the shelf one, but I'm sure if you said "set it up for rallycross" they'd be able to accomodate.)

[Northernboy]

Haltamer said:

https://www.tegiwaimports.com/select-car/toyota/to...

Shop around, see what bits take your fancy :P

For an all in one package, The litchfield offering might be up your street. (Not quite the off the shelf one, but I'm sure if you said "set it up for rallycross" they'd be able to accomodate.)

Thanks. I’m assuming I’ll get their power upgrade, and definitely speak to them about what can be done for the suspension, I’m fine to accept a bit of roll and loss of lateral g in exchange for some proper wheel articulation and ability to prêtent that I’m Carlos Sainz.

[rodericb]

Luckily this is what the GR Yaris has been built for. Pretty much all of the focus of the aftermarket has been on dumping the thing onto its guts for looks and/or tarmac road circuit work. Our man in Japan talks about the rear suspension in that regard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM8fcX6DJbE

You'll probably know that there are plastic panels in the bonnet which can be removed to shove in longer travel dampers.

[rallycross]

Northernboy said:

I’ve a GR Yaris arriving at some point this year, and I’m buying it just to have some fun.

, something that I actually could drive in Rallycross, ?

Great choice of car, tempted to get one as well (one of the few times I've ever considered a brand new car).
You cant use it in rallycross, sorry to say but rallycross is where competition cars (rally or circuit cars) go to meet their last ever laps, a road car would be destroyed! (long time rallycross competitor - road cars do not get used in this form of motor sport, you could try some autocross, you'd probably get FTD in one of these!)

[Northernboy]

rallycross said:

Great choice of car, tempted to get one as well (one of the few times I've ever considered a brand new car).
You cant use it in rallycross, sorry to say but rallycross is where competition cars (rally or circuit cars) go to meet their last ever laps, a road car would be destroyed! (long time rallycross competitor - road cars do not get used in this form of motor sport, you could try some autocross, you'd probably get FTD in one of these!)

What stops it being used in rallycross?

[jamiem555]

Probably the fact it’s a road car! I think, welI know, that road cars and competition cars stopped being related a long time ago. Probably the 60’s and 70’s where people would buy a twin cam escort from the dealer and rally it at the weekends with a few mods. Not really something that can be done now with current regulations. Go over to Rally Prep, they’ve got one in now for a customer about to be fully prepped for rallying. I can guarantee it won’t be any use for the road after even though it will be road legal.

[rallycross]

Northernboy said:

What stops it being used in rallycross?

As per above but I was referring to what happens after the first lap - you may have more body damage than the car would get in it’s full life as a road car!

[Northernboy]

jamiem555 said:

Probably the fact it’s a road car! I think, welI know, that road cars and competition cars stopped being related a long time ago. Probably the 60’s and 70’s where people would buy a twin cam escort from the dealer and rally it at the weekends with a few mods. Not really something that can be done now with current regulations. Go over to Rally Prep, they’ve got one in now for a customer about to be fully prepped for rallying. I can guarantee it won’t be any use for the road after even though it will be road legal.

Interesting. You think the fact it’s being sold as a homologation special is mainly hype then, and it can’t be modified to do the job.

I wasn’t actually planning on competing in it, by the way, that was clumsy phrasing, I just like the idea that it’d be capable of some sideways action on gravel.

[The Rotrex Kid]

2JZ engine swap?

[jamiem555]

Northernboy said:

jamiem555 said:

Probably the fact it’s a road car! I think, welI know, that road cars and competition cars stopped being related a long time ago. Probably the 60’s and 70’s where people would buy a twin cam escort from the dealer and rally it at the weekends with a few mods. Not really something that can be done now with current regulations. Go over to Rally Prep, they’ve got one in now for a customer about to be fully prepped for rallying. I can guarantee it won’t be any use for the road after even though it will be road legal.

Interesting. You think the fact it’s being sold as a homologation special is mainly hype then, and it can’t be modified to do the job.

I wasn’t actually planning on competing in it, by the way, that was clumsy phrasing, I just like the idea that it’d be capable of some sideways action on gravel.

Of course it can be modified to do the job, it just won’t be much use as a road car after. It is an homologation special but it was really just to get the body shape for the WRC car. Even going back to more recent times. A Group N production car spec Evo or Spec C Subaru had some pretty extensive mods to get them to rally spec. Weld in cage, transmission internals upgraded, bigger or smaller brakes depending on surface. You wouldn’t get much change from
£100k for a GP N car 15 or so years ago.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

If you want b Road toy,id be looking at Exe-TC or Reiger dampers. They're spendy mind. I have experience of Exe-TC and they're incredible bits of kit. I can see why loeb won so many wrcs using them.

[EK9_CTR]

Northernboy said:

Who’s the company to go for for this sort of work?

First place I'd call would be Litchfield.

[tonyb1968]

jamiem555 said:

Of course it can be modified to do the job, it just won’t be much use as a road car after. It is an homologation special but it was really just to get the body shape for the WRC car. Even going back to more recent times. A Group N production car spec Evo or Spec C Subaru had some pretty extensive mods to get them to rally spec. Weld in cage, transmission internals upgraded, bigger or smaller brakes depending on surface. You wouldn’t get much change from
£100k for a GP N car 15 or so years ago.

Remembering off the top of my head, a 2005 Subaru Spec C motorsport converted for grp N cost circa £60,000 from Prodrive, this is why there were a few different versions (16 inch motorsport which was designed to have throw away parts like interior, brakes etc, 17 inch, RA etc).

[Onehp]

Thread revival, stumbled on this thread.

Anyway, late addition to the OP question, if you want to pretend to be a rallycross driver, it's probably the driver that needs to practice, because here a stock GR Yaris was in the running with lap times on a European rallycross track, using street tyres still....
https://www.rtl.de/videos/gute-kraftverteilung-abe...

I can personally confirm it can go down a gravel road plenty quick too. And Toyota even released some footage with the WRC drivers doing exactly that, here some summary footage, sourced from individual promotion vids in the description
https://youtu.be/ttGtiOZa2mg

[Erast Fandorin]

There's already a one-make rally series for lightly modified cars, cage, safety equipment and small wheels from what I could see:

https://mag.toyota.co.uk/toyota-gazoo-racing-iberi...

Frankly though, 'improving' a car to make it good at competition stuff just makes it a horrible road car IMO.

[ecsrobin]

Erast Fandorin said:

There's already a one-make rally series for lightly modified cars, cage, safety equipment and small wheels from what I could see:

https://mag.toyota.co.uk/toyota-gazoo-racing-iberi...

Frankly though, 'improving' a car to make it good at competition stuff just makes it a horrible road car IMO.

An Iberian Yaris was running at Goodwood FOS on the rally stage.

[UK952]

EK9_CTR said:

First place I'd call would be Litchfield.

Might be worth speaking to Fensport too, they have done a fair bit of work on theirs

https://www.fensport.co.uk/blogs/fensport-gr-yaris...

Tony

[dvshannow]

The Rotrex Kid said:

2JZ engine swap?

What did you do to it looks stock to me ?

[ecsrobin]

Rally2 car has been announced for 24 season so could look at that for inspiration.



https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/toyota-reveals-...