The world is raving about the new Toyota GR Yaris, but had things gone a little differently, it would have been competing, in race guise, in the World Rally Championship. The GR Yaris was built as the road-going variant of Toyota’s new WRC car and produced to meet homologation requirements.
However, due to financial issues triggered
by the coronavirus pandemic, Toyota abandoned development of the new Yaris WRC
racer earlier in the year and will instead compete in the next season with an
updated version of the 2020 car. Fortunately, the rally-bred DNA of the GR
Yaris will still be put to good use, albeit in the 2021 Australian Rally
Championship.
Dubbed the Yaris AP4, the car has been
developed in collaboration with local company Neal Bates Motorsport that’s run
by four-time Australian rally champion and Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia chief
Neal Bates. Work on the car started in March with virtual reality technology used
to create the distinctive exterior bodywork. The two cars currently being built
both started life as road-going GR Yaris models.
