This is yet outstanding design from Hugo Silva, who caught everyone’s attention before with his version of the Pikes Peak spec Audi R8, the awesome looking Ford Bronco and a reworked Autozam AZ-1 which in fact is a Mazda product.
In January last year, Toyota unveiled to the world at the Tokyo Auto Salon Show, a homologation model hot hatch born to win the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
It was a total surprise to the motoring press and to diehard hot hatch lovers that this car was powered by a 1.6-litre in-line three-cylinder direct-injection turbo engine (G16E-GTS).
This compact 1,618cc engine had 272PS ready for the driver and a massive 370Nm of torque powering a compact hatch weighing in at just 1,280kg.
Using a iMT six-speed manual gearbox and a GR-FOUR sports four-wheel drive system, this little Toyota was developed to win rally and tarmac races around the world.
Its production was only in one location, at a dedicated production line at Toyota’s Motomachi Plant, which has a long and solid track record of manufacturing sports cars, and plans are for assembly to be carried out by takumi (master craftsperson) team members.
Since its launch a year ago, this little Toyota Yaris GR has been the most written and talked about three-cylinder hot hatch around the globe and wherever it has been launched, sales have been beyond expectations.
Arriving in Malaysia only in Dec 18 last year at a selling price of RM299,000 (without road tax and insurance) the allocated 200 units for Malaysia was sold to collectors and car enthusiasts in just weeks.
The available 25,000 units only for the whole world means this little three-cylinder pocket rocket will soon be a collector’s item.
Soon after its launch, a Yaris GR Japanese owner had a mishap and wrote-off his vehicle after just driving the car for 1,048 kilometres.
Now, a well-known designer is taking the already aggressive looks of the Yaris GR and giving it a wide-body look that Toyota Motor should adopt themselves for the facelift of this pocket rocket.
Yes, only 25,000 units have been planned for production, but with its global success, Toyota should look at producing another run of this wide-body version for waiting customers around the world.
There is sure to be more than 25,000 buyers around the globe ready to snap-up this version.
In Malaysia even at say RM330,000 or so (without road tax and insurance), there will be buyers for the wide-body version.
Fingers crossed it will be produced.
This article is powered by DS&F. For more automotive updates, follow DS&F on Facebook and Instagram.