Updated GR Yaris with Automatic debuts at Tokyo Auto Salon

Nurburgring

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GR Yaris confirmed for my country! Delivery early 2021 according to planners. I`m in for one.
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SupraFiend

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Toyota's Left Hand:
"You're going to take this BMW and accept it as the new Supra because its the only way you're going to get one! Sports cars are too expensive to develop today, we had to co develop! Also, manual transmissions are dead!"

If Toyota managed to spread out the R&D cost to develop this little engine for both a high performance rally car and hybrid-electric applications then so be it. They still developed a new three-door hatch short wheelbase 2800lb Yaris chassis with AWD that has different selectable modes, a sole six-speed manual transmission, a boosted 268hp engine and the option of Torsen LSDs at both ends.
Toyota's Right Hand:
"Hey, wouldn't it be fun to develop a low volume, awd, turbo charged, 6 spd manual hot hatch in house? With bespoke transmission, motor and chassis. YES WE CAN DO THAT!!"
 

KahnBB6

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^^ The difference is that even with the difference in the regular Japan/Euro Yaris chassis and lineup the Yaris GR-4 still folds into an existing lineup much more easily.... and in addition a lot of that driveline and R&D will soon go into at least one other globally sold model. Plus variants of the AWD system will likely be used in several applications and so will the engine architecture. It wouldnā€™t surprise me if the brand new 6-speed manual transmission found in the current Corolla hatchback wasnā€™t also part of a larger development of the 6-speed manual box design found in the Yaris GR-4 but Iā€™ve only got speculation to go on there.

In the Supraā€™s case itā€™s all one bespoke (but shared) platform inherently tied to another automaker that is both conservative on manual transmissions outside of their M-cars AND touchy about allowing the Supra to be too competitive with their M-cars via sharing key driveline bits.

I also agree with your feeling on this left hand right hand disconnect but I think itā€™s a little more complicated than that in reality.

However.... since money was saved by co-developing the A90 and tweaking it I find it hard to believe that Toyota couldnā€™t add some of their own bespoke R&D to the car for MY2021+ to make it more uniquely theirs while still using most of the core shared platform and engine architectures.

I donā€™t want to veer too far off topic but itā€™s definitely a fair point on a complex issue.
 

SupraFiend

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If only Toyota had an in house luxury brand that needed a new 2 door sports coupe (or 3) at the time to share the platform with!

It was a BS reason at the time, and everyone not drinking the kool aid knew it, this just hammers it back.

Excited about this Yaris, though seems unlikely it will ever come to north america considering our current Yaris is a rebadged BMW.. err I MEAN Mazda 2, unlike the Euro JDM one which is actually made by Toyota.
 

A70TTR

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The developments are totally different in the way they went down... Yaris platform already existed and they were already developing a drivetrain package for WRC, so it wasn't much of a jump to create the GR4. In fact, you could say it wasn't really developed for the public at all until someone said, hey we should offer a road going version of this.

Supra was a new ground up development. There was no existing chassis and no massive racing program/budget to fall back on for everything else.

Lexus gets their own platforms these days, and they're pushing more and more for bespoke engines as well. This was not the case in the past and you can still see the results of that in some models, but times change...
 

jm6k

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HKz

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wow great comparison of a $50 K sports car and a cheap subcompact that is just souped up for a special version, guess we should have zero complaints about the supra interior!
 

A70TTR

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I actually weighed my aerotop and it was low/mid 35xxlbs iirc (TT-R weighs quite a bit less), so they're not nearly as heavy as some think. But yeah, there were several reasons why the platform sharing thing didnt happen.
 
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KahnBB6

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^^ I was going to say... USDM MKIII Turbos tend to be in the 3500-ish to 3600-ish range. Not surprising that a JDM TT-R is among the lightest of the A70 turbo range. They arenā€™t lightweight cars but Iā€™ve never heard of one weighing anywhere close to 4000lbs.

The current Lexus RC chassis on the other hand... itā€™s got 4000lbs++ more than covered.

Lexus seems to be very happy with their luxury IS and RC even though they do weigh far too much for the tastes of a buyer more interested in a Supra. If the MKV had shared that platform it would not have fared well against its competition in the $50k ballpark.
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