Nearly a year later, Toyota announced two GR Yaris ‘concepts’ at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon. They were the GR Yaris RZ Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier Editions, which wore special appearance packages and were tuned with bespoke driving modes to suit the WRC drivers they were named after. The concepts promised that people would eventually be able to buy one. That time has finally come.
In the year since its debut, the GR Yaris has received a major facelift. So the new models look a little different. However, the core elements are the same; Ogier’s car is finished in a dark shade called Matte Stealth Gray, which helps accentuate the blue brake calipers behind those sharp 18-inch BBS wheels. A special rally spoiler made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic adorns the hatch, and you’ll find a pair of decals celebrating Ogier’s WRC success and his home country of France. Rovanpera’s car is brighter and wears a version of its three-tone racing livery with special logos and WRC awards. The rear wing is identical to that of the GRMN Yaris.
Inside, both cars feature special badging and contrast stitching unique to each edition. You’ll also find exclusive full TFT meter displays that show each car’s specific driving modes. But the modes are very different to the gravel and track settings you’ll find on a normal GR Yaris.
The Ogier Edition features Morzio mode, which Toyota describes as “restraint (direct connection) that is applied maximally to the front and rear wheels during acceleration and relaxed only when necessary during braking.” You also get SEB mode, named after Ogier and tuned to send more power to the rear wheels than the front.
As for the colorful Rovanpera edition, it gets a colorfully named Donut mode that provides ‘slide control while drifting’. That sounds like drift mode to us. There’s also KALLE mode, which includes a different rear differential to “aggressively swing out the rear of the vehicle when entering a turn and pull the front of the vehicle forward using the accelerator pedal.” That also sounds like a drift mode to us, but one with a little more emphasis on obtaining terribly sideways.
26 photos
These special editions will of course not go to America, as the GR Yaris is not sold here. Toyota will only build 200 in total – 100 each – and you’ll have to enter a lottery starting this spring for a chance to buy one. The chance that you will encounter them somewhere is therefore very small. If you are chosen, you will get the car and some nice VIP benefits, such as meeting the drivers. There is no mention of price, although we suspect that these cars will be slightly more expensive than the average GR Yaris.