That is the Toyota GR Yaris M Concept, and the very first thing it is advisable find out about it’s it is going to compete within the Super Taikyu endurance racing series. The second thing is that unlike an everyday GR Yaris, the M Concept doesn’t have an engine under its front bonnet.
Opening the tailgate, you’ll find the engine now sits behind the rear seats to create a midship layout versus a front-engine one, but it surely isn’t the G16E-GTS 1.6 litre turbocharged inline-three petrol unit present in the usual automobile.
As a substitute, it is a latest 2.0 litre turbocharged inline-four petrol engine that Toyota is currently developing but isn’t providing much in the way in which of technical details. The one thing we’re being told is that through the highly demanding world of endurance racing, engineers will repeatedly “break and fix” the automobile (and its engine) as a part of the event process.
Toyota says this is a component of its “driver-first” approach to automobile making that takes under consideration feedback from Morizo (that’s Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda’s racing pseudonym), skilled drivers and gentleman drivers.
Long-time Toyota fans will find the concept of the GR Yaris M Concept to be a well-recognized one, as the corporate did something similar back in 2008 when it unveiled the Aygo Crazy. Nicknamed the “shopping supercar,” the one-off concept was based on the Aygo city automobile and had its small-displacement engine ripped out and replaced with a bigger 1.8 litre VVT-i unit.
A turbo kit was added to spice up power and the engine was rear-mounted, with drive going to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. In its stock form, the 1ZZ-FE engine (minus the turbo) powered the ultimate generation of the Celica and MR2.
On the mention of the MR2, it has been heavily rumoured for a while that Toyota plans to revive the enduring nameplate. In actual fact, the corporate even hinted last yr on the MR2’s return to the line-up in its promotional anime series, although there was no official word just yet.
While the reveal of the M Concept could also be checked out as Toyota’s attempt at making a “Crazy” version of the GR Yaris, it could thoroughly be a test mule for the MR2 revival. It was previously reported that the fourth-generation MR2 would get an all-new 2.0 litre turbocharged engine developed in partnership with Subaru and Mazda, with a goal of 400 PS (395 hp or 294 kW) and 550 Nm of torque.
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
