GR Yaris shows how fast he really is against Celica GT-Four

There was no Toyota like the news GR Yaris since the old Celica GT-Four ST205 from the mid-90s. It was only a matter of time before someone put on a face-between the company’s two newest homologation special rally monsters, and Fifth Gear has seized the opportunity.

In this short video, British touring car legend and Fifth Gear presenter Jason Plato takes the two Toyotas around Castle Combe to find out just how much faster the Yaris really is.

I say “how much faster” and not “which is faster” because, with 18 more horsepower, additional gearing, an empty weight of about 240 pounds less and 25 years of technological advancement in general, it doesn’t was never a question of whether Yaris could broke the base of what former FIA President Max Mosely called “Most ingenious” cheat he had never seen. Victory was inevitable – the question was how bad the whooping cough would be.

That’s not to say the Celica isn’t fast. “You know what? He’s in his twenties, that, and that’s pretty good. You have to put a lot of steering, but once the car gets in … that, wow” Plato walks away, like I guess I would do it behind the wheel of the Sega Rally cover the star on an open track.

After whipping the Celica around Castle Combe, Plato clings to the Yaris, which he notices as brilliantly “sharp and sharp” before completing a full lap seven seconds faster than in the old car.

The Yaris seems so much faster on the track. Of course, he East faster, but there’s also a visual illusion to seeing modern rally cars, with their short wheelbases and chunky proportions, crush a lap compared to the much bigger coupes we had in the ’90s. The pace itself is surprising. again.

We already knew the GR Yaris was fast – damn it, beat the Civic Type R, a car of about 40 more horsepower, in a drag race. And yet, every time that hot hatch is let go, it somehow breaks its already high expectations. Meanwhile, those of us on the wrong side of the Atlantic are engulfed more and more by the depression of knowing we can’t have it.

No, this video won’t make you feel better about it, but seeing these siblings on the tarmac together will make you smile. And maybe, just maybe, we can take a little solace in the fantasy that Toyota will soon keep its promise to bring a GR-flavored Corolla to our shores.