First drive review: The Toyota GR Yaris feels liberated in junior-ranking rally guise, though its character stems from the road car’s immense talent
Getting going is almost too easy: the clutch and beautifully straightforward, finger-tippy steering are light and visibility is reasonably good. There's not much steering lock, but as you'll learn as soon as you're up to speed, the car hardly needs any. You can even have the regular car’s rev-matching function engaged for the six-speed gearbox, and there’s nothing else to decide on that the mechanics haven't already set for you, so there's nothing to distract.
What follows is an absolute riot. The Iberian Cup car feels raw but weightless and in some way delicate compared with the road car, and is shockingly accelerative on a dusty surface. The engine is unchanged from factory-spec, but 257bhp and 266lb ft are more than enough to fling your forward with just the right mix of dirt-slinging wheel-slip and crampons-on acceleration.
And then you get to the corners. Those Cusco diffs must be pretty tightly wound, because beyond a sliver of understeer, the chassis answers throttle openings with sharp but addictively controllable oversteer. The handbrake is necessary only once on this rally-tots circuit, at the very tightest hairpin.
The blend of adjustability and stability is just joyful. The tyres generate a surprisingly level of grip but it's your choice – via the throttle-pedal – as to how much you want to dip into that or exceed it. Freer suspension travel and reduced weight also means the car floats lithely across the ground and mops up the landing of this short course’s one small jump near-seamlessly.
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