Street-Legal Toyota Yaris To Have Racing Bloodlines

Fresh from unveiling its 2017 World Rally Championship car, Toyota announces it will be entering the hot-hatch market with a high-performance Yaris.

The automaker says lessons learned from developing the Toyota Yaris WRC racer will be used to breathe fire into the road-going Yaris whose first renderings have just been released.

The Yaris WRC, in accordance with championship race rules, uses a 1.6L 4-cyl. gasoline engine tuned to produce more than 380 hp backed up by more than 314 lb.-ft. (425 Nm) of torque. Power passes through a 6-speed hydraulic-shift gearbox to an all-wheel-drive system equipped with two mechanical differentials.

It’s anyone’s guess how much of this racing tech will get into the road car, but if the artist’s impressions are anything to go by the Yaris could be a real back-lane screamer.