Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) held the world premiere yesterday of its latest GR Yaris at Tokyo Auto Salon 2024 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. Sales in Japan of the new GR Yaris are scheduled to start this spring through Toyota vehicle dealers. The racing hot hatchback might find it’s niche on American roads, if there remains any market for a small pocket rocket amidst the tidal waves of SUVs and pickup trucks.

Toyota consolidated motorsports activities under Gazoo Racing in 2015. “Gazoo” is based on gazō, Japanese for image. TGR has continued to compete in various motorsports following the debut of the GR Yaris. It has been implementing “driver-first car-making” through repeated “breaking and fixing” in extreme environments and reflecting feedback from professional race drivers and evaluation drivers, as well as from Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman and accomplished driver Akio Toyoda, aka Morizo.

As a symbol of TGR car-making, the GR Yaris was born through making ever-better motorsports-bred cars. TGR has continued to compete in various motorsports including the Super Taikyu Series, Japanese Rally Championship, and FIA World Rally Championship using the GR Yaris since the model’s launch in September 2020.