Words: Harrison Wade Photos: Toyota New Zealand, Harrison Wade
Take a look at any new car yard today, and you’ll realise that we car enthusiasts are in a bit of a predicament when it comes to the future of new fun-to-drive, high-performance cars, as our options continue to dwindle year-on-year globally. So who’s going to save us? Well, Toyota would like to have a word, or should we say, GR.
In an industry hell-bent on feeding the consumers’ insatiable appetite for soulless SUVs, fuel-efficient hybrids, and bland electric vehicles, Toyota NZ is swooping in to keep the joy of driving alive by transforming GR into its own standalone brand, rather than just a badge. The way it will work is comparable to how Lexus acts as the carmaker’s luxury arm, with the idea being that Toyota can solely focus on what it does best, which is producing reliable transportation for the masses, while GR is reserved solely for performance, motorsport, and enthusiasts.
Toyota invited us to Hampton Downs to learn more about what Kiwis can expect from the next chapter of GR on home soil, and we can assure you that there are some very exciting things coming.
DEALERSHIPS, PARTS, AND MOTORSPORT
As GR stands on its own two feet, select Toyota dealerships across the country will be outfitted with their own area dedicated to the performance brand and its current model lineup, including the GR Yaris, GR Corolla, and GR86. If you’ve ever visited a GR Garage in Japan, these new spaces will feel similar: a local hub for enthusiasts to gather, interact with specially trained staff, and buy OEM upgrade parts for their respective GR model.
Speaking of parts, we were given a taste of what parts you can currently buy through any Toyota parts department, and let’s just say, these guys clearly know just how much Kiwis love to modify their cars. To prove it, here are just some of the parts you can buy for the GR Yaris: a carbon fibre wing and bonnet, a more aggressive body kit, steel undertrays, limited-slip differentials, a cold-air intake duct, strut braces, and upgraded ECU software. Each part reflects GR’s rich motorsport experience, which makes a huge difference to on-road and track performance, as we later found out firsthand.
Motorsport is, of course, another aspect of car culture that New Zealanders have a strong affiliation with, and it’s one of the main reasons Toyota decided that the GR marque should carry the torch for its future endeavours. In addition to revealing the new GRF-70 Formula Regional Car that will begin racing in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy this summer, Supercars Championship driver Ryan Wood, who races for Walkinshaw TWG Racing in the #2 GR Supra, was announced as the brand’s first guardian — a keen car guy himself who had plenty of stories to tell us about what he gets up to in his own GR Supra road car over in Melbourne. It’s safe to say that the brand is in good hands.
PUTTING GR TO THE TEST
All this talk of racing had us keen to get out on track and see what was really behind the red-and-black badge. Luckily for us, we were handed the keys to one of the greatest modern-day hot hatches still on sale, the GR Yaris, of which four different flavours were on offer for us to try — two fitted with six-speed manual gearboxes and two with the automatic (introduced to the model in 2024). All of them, of course, featured that sweet 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine, the G16E-GTS, which we all know and love since it debuted in 2020, now producing 224kW and 400Nm of torque since its 2024 update.
Upon getting behind the wheel, we were tasked with tackling a series of sections at different points around the track, including gymkhana, slalom, high-speed, and hard braking zones to really test the handling capabilities of the plucky little three-door. In a way, this car reminds us a lot of the fifth-generation Starlet Glanza V (P90) and could very well pass for being its spiritual successor, especially when you throw a few mods at it.
Of the four GR Yaris we got to drive, the one fitted with pretty much the entire catalogue of official parts we glossed over earlier, and then some, truly stood out on track. In addition to the carbon fibre bonnet, rear wing, GR bodykit, and bracing, the ‘parts car’ features stiffer suspension, shorter three-to-five gear ratios, and 1.5-way front and rear LSDs, providing a noticeable improvement over the already remarkable exploits of the standard car in terms of corner entry and exit, as well as acceleration. The uprated ‘GR Metal Clutch’ also allows far more aggressive launches and shifts, and yes, all of this is available through your nearest Toyota dealer.
CONTINUOUS EVOLUTION
Getting hands-on with the GR Yaris was made sweeter when we got to speak to one of the key personnel behind its creation, Project Manager Hiroyuki Yamada, who flew from Japan to walk us through the model’s race-to-road development story and how it continues to be refined six years after launch.
Indeed, we all know that the GR Yaris began life as a homologated version of the World Rally Championship (WRC) car, but continuous evolution has introduced features like a factory intercooler water spray system, improved aerodynamics, a driver-centric cockpit from the 2024 model year onward, as well as the option of a rally-style vertically mounted handbrake that Yamada-san fitted himself to his personal car back home.
We couldn’t help but ask Yamada-san about GR’s support for aftermarket modifications, to which he mentioned that parts from brands like GReddy and HKS are offered through GR Garage in Japan. Whether third-party parts will be sold in NZ’s equivalent has yet to be confirmed, but the fact that the support is there from the Toyota home office is a great sign for enthusiasts and the car community as a whole.
LOOKING AHEAD
As for the current model lineup, you’ll still see the Toyota badge sit alongside the Gazoo logo, but future models will only feature the latter, similar to the GR GT — GR’s flagship twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 hybrid supercar that was revealed at the end of 2025. Future models haven’t been announced, but recent spy shots suggest two iconic nameplates could soon make a comeback. GR Celica and GR MR2, anyone?
If there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that Toyota and its local team share the same level of passion for driving as we do, and are taking the necessary steps to nurture New Zealand’s unique car culture by dedicating the full force of the GR brand to it.
