Gazoo Racing could spawn hot Yaris from this engine
Toyota Gazoo Racing is about to hit the performance mainstream and the car to potentially launch it into hot hatch stardom with be the Toyota Yaris.
Without getting ahead of ourselves, the Toyota Supra co-developed with BMW, is rumoured to be next.
Toyota has upgraded the current Yaris’s 1.3-litre engine to 1.5-litres with the option of turbo charging seemingly factored in from the genesis. In standard, trim the 1.5-litre 4-cylinder produces 75kW and 135Nm which is predictably better than the smaller engine. More cylinder volume doesn’t demand extra thirst either – somehow fuel consumption is better by an average 12%. Downsizing is nonsense!
With Toyota’s return to WRC this year with the angriest Yaris of all, we’d like to think some of the mechanical innovations have trickled down. This is after all a clever engine with a water-cooled exhaust manifold, a 13.5:1 compression ratio plus variable valve timing able to run in Otto and Atkinson cycle. We could be looking at a 156kW Gazoo Racing Yaris aimed at the Ford Fiesta ST and the Clio RS. Next question, does Toyota have a worthy chassis and sufficient red stitching lying back at the factory?
Toyota is still vehemently denying that this engine is the basis for the first Gazoo hot hatch but sources close to the project are confident it will be ready in time for a world debut at the Geneva Motor Show later this year.
