Toyota prototype review: this mid-engined Yaris is a test bed for the new Celica and MR2

What are we looking at here?

It looks like a Yaris. A Yaris with a bodykit, yes. A Yaris with a suspiciously extended wheelbase, certainly. A Yaris covered in some sort of digital camouflage, for sure. It isn’t a Yaris. Not in any way that matters, anyway.

From the first time it starts up and flings itself out onto the test circuit, you know that this is something else entirely. Mainly because it’s making a noise like a wasp trapped in an amplifier, moving at a scarcely believable rate, and the noise is coming from the back. And not just the exhaust.

This does not explain … anything?

We’re here at Toyota’s semi-secret test facility in Shimoyama in Japan to test the future. And in Toyota terms, that appears to be accessible, real-world sports cars. Or at least the foetuses of them. So we’ve got several different iterations of a Yaris, all with a mid-mounted engine.

Some have the GR’s three-cylinder stuffed in the back with the drivetrain one-eightied (rear subframe and diff appears in the front), others sporting a fetching mess of pipework that shrouds a new ‘G20E’ four cylinder turbo petrol. Most look like power is being delivered by a sexy air conditioning unit, but in there somewhere the G20E is nestled offset to the right, with the six-speed manual (in this case, you can also fit the Gazoo Racing eight-speed auto) lurking on the left. 

So we’re getting a mid-engined Yaris? Weird. 

Nope. The Yaris is just a test chassis. In some cases extended by 100mm. And the GR Yaris was already longer in the wheelbase than a 992 Porsche 911. So this isn’t about Yaris-shaped things. Intellectually, an MR2 would fit the bill, but the new Celica has been announced, and that’s likely first.

The engine itself is the key; it can be front or mid-mounted, longitudinally in the front if necessary. Toyota has both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive formats, so this could conceivably be front-wheel drive too. And it’s small enough to also fit hybrid bits. So there’s a lot of potential here – Toyota keeping tight-lipped as to exactly what we’re dealing with. 

So what’s it like to drive?

Well, we were only allowed a go on a loose surface in a rally-style prototype with the GR Yaris’ engine and about 250bhp. Though it’s worth noting that it felt like a lot less than that. A 50:50 torque split and six-speed manual were in attendance, and with everyone trying very hard to control the situation, it was up to TG to… uncontrol it. Cue some misinterpretation of the route, a longer accidental session from TG and some gently irate PR people, but we got a good idea of what the not-a-Yaris felt like.

It’s not a Yaris. It doesn’t feel anything like a Yaris. In fact, it feels more like a GT86, such is the keenness to rotate. The steering is light and nicely accurate – even as a donkey of a prototype – the 43:57-ish weight distribution front to rear feeling more tippy and rear-wheel drive than you expect. Turn, lift, oversteer. It’s hilarious, with just enough front axle help to prevent spinning. The very basics here are eminently solid; Toyota making a car that’s not just fast, but fun and engaging. Not the fastest, but definitely lightly furious.

But what about the one with the new engine?

That’s the even better bit. Ok, so we weren’t allowed to drive it, but Toyota sent us out on Shimoyama’s test track in the tarmac-rally-looking later stage buck with the new motor. A proving ground to prove all proving grounds, the test route is modelled on the Nürburgring Norschleife, about 25 per cent of it, and it’s all blind corners and crests and elevation changes that make you airsick. In the hot seat was Toyota’s ‘master driver’ and boss of development, and suffice to say, with his knowledge of both the circuit and the car, what was probably 7/10ths felt like… quite a lot.

So that engine is good then?

It’s still early for this sort of thing, but the tarmac car was reportedly running around 400bhp. And it was super-rapid. Not the sick-making speed of a high-powered EV, but plenty if you wanted to get yourself into serious trouble in no time at all. It sounded raspy and happy to rev, quick to die from the upper reaches and torquey – there was no scrabbling about for a powerband.

What’s more interesting is how the car felt from the passenger seat. Because again, this categorically did not feel like a GR Yaris, in any way, shape or form. Small inputs delivered larger-then-expected results, the balance super rear-wheel drive. But where a GR Yaris in all its AWD glory feels like it rotates from the bottom of the windscreen – they always feel a bit understeery – the concept-slash-mule moves from just behind the front seats. It’s very obvious when you say it out loud, but the difference is stark; you approach with the visual prejudice of ‘Yaris’, but get back out of it thinking ‘Cayman’. And yes, it really is that good.

Any bad points?

Not many. And the obvious things are so far away from finished, they really don’t matter. The sound is currently industrial rather than soulful – the typical four-pot turbo gravel against a tin sheet. But the cooling, induction and exhaust are all what’s being tested.

The dynamics are also – how to put this? — ‘lively’. Our host pilot might have been cool as a cucumber, but the slides he was neatly curtailing with a jab of the steering wheel were definitely on the loose side. Without those neat, professional corrections, the car was wanting to do a quick two-step directly into the lack of runoff. Again, something that will come later in the form of stabilising electronics. But perhaps it’s a good thing they didn’t let us have a go…

So what’s the verdict?

All of the good things, essentially. We spent a little time being indoctrinated, sorry, introduced, into the Tao of Toyota, and the good stuff really is good. We’ve had the GR Yaris and Corolla – and the GRMN versions of both – the V8 GR GT is on the way to worry at the hind legs of the Porsche 911, there’s going to be a new Celica, MR2 (Toyota trademarked ‘GR MR2’ last year) and possibly a new Supra. All the kind of sports cars that might well be accessible to people without Elon Musk’s bank account.

The Yaris prototypes might be a fair way from finished, and we’re not entirely sure what car they’re for yet, but they’re engaging, exciting and pointing very much in the right direction. Fun ICE cars aren’t dead yet, and Toyota’s extending the lifespan.