The plaudits and five star reviews of the GR Yaris are yesterday’s chip paper, and I’m left fielding questions on the forum such as ‘Why is it not run in yet.’ With the six-hundred mile mark approaching, the obvious response to such trolling was to put some more miles on. A lot more.
The opportunity presented itself in our planned holiday to West Cork. Where else would you take a homologation special, but on four hours of billiard table smooth Irish motorway south from Belfast, followed by punishing R-roads at the south tip of the country.
Mrs C. took full advantage of the fact there was no 20 kilo baggage allowance, and both the diminutive GR boot (small and high thanks to the 4WD drivetrain) and back seat were promptly filled to capacity with all manner of kitchen sinks, power-to-weight be damned. I’ve no doubt the 1280kg kerb weight is a distant memory.
Much is made of the GR Yaris driving position being too high, rear view mirror too large. These complaints melt away, the seats providing plenty of support yet comfortable enough to eat a few hundred Irish motorway miles with ease. The aftermarket mirror riser I fitted helps with the forward vision, and in fact as the miles roll on I don’t even give these perceived issues a second thought.
What is far more apparent is the lack of sound deadening, with tyre roar echoing via arguably the GR Yaris’ most attractive features, those stance squaring bulbous wheel arches. I make a mental note to invest in some Dynamat on our return home.
Conversely, the motorway pounding is made much more relaxing by the latest driver aids from Toyota, with both adaptive cruise control and lane assist working superbly well to manage both open road on the M1 and considerable traffic on the M50 that skirts around Dublin. In day to day driving, this normally isn’t the case and turning off the lane departure warnings becomes part of the moving off routine in the morning; it just can’t handle the country roads near home without constant unnecessary bleeping which is a major distraction when its on. Not so on the carriageway.
Of course any road trip worth its salt is also defined by snacks and entertainment. Two cup holders in the centre console along with large door bins that can accept water bottles made for good living up front. The awkwardly mounted infotainment screen ran CarPlay faultlessly throughout our trip, and although the speaker output is slightly anemic (don’t expect Bose or B&O level sound quality), Waze maps, tunes from Spotify and Podcasts kept us occupied.
Once we left the motorway and N-roads south of Cork, onto the R587 (B-roads) deep into West Cork, the compromises that the GR brings over a regular Yaris, its hard-core nature if you like, came to the fore. My passenger had no desire after several hours riding shotgun, to be pummelled down the broken, uneven tarmac, in full Donegal Rally attack mode.
The rather firmly sprung Circuit Pack car is composed at pace, but struggles to deliver a more relaxed approach well under the speed limit. Short gear ratios, small displacement, and significant boost pressure seemingly available at anywhere in the rev-range thanks to the ball bearing turbo, translates into a car always on its toes, ready to attack.
Finally at our destination, overlooking the famous Sheep’s Head peninsula, nearly the entire interior volume of the GR Yaris was promptly unloaded into our AirBnb and we made our way to the local villages in the search for sustenance.
We stop in Schull, unbeknownst to us, infamous sadly as the place near where French TV Producer Sophie le Plantier was murdered in 1996, and subject of a much more recent Netflix documentary. It is in truth, a quaint bustling small town that embodies everything that’s great about rural living and close knit community.
For context this is summer 2021, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Current rules dictate no indoor dining, which has inspired the West Cork hospitality to take over the footpaths and main streets with tables and diners. The weather is extraordinarily kind to us, with temperatures in the late teens even stretching into late evening.
The Yaris comes into its own as a small hatchback, finding small on-street spaces and doing it’s best to blend in, well if you don’t look too closely. Of course this is well away from the big cities, so fellow Toyota enthusiasts have been spotting us as we made our way country bound, with AE86 Corolla owners, IS200 drivers and more giving us a flash of the lights and a thumbs up at every opportunity. If you know, you know.
Dining al-fresco on Schull’s main street, I glance over at the GR Yaris, now parked deliberately I might add behind the ubiquitous Toyota pick-up, I can’t help but crack a grin.
We have a week here in the southern tip of Ireland, and although we are some 90 minutes South West of Cork, this is a huge area to explore. A hastily booked boat trip to Skellig Michael, the rocky island outcrop where recent Star Wars movies were filmed was arranged, and over two hours of peninsula traversing was required to get us to the harbour.
This involved breath taking cliff top overlooks and winding coastal roads which form part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, roads which any petrolhead would happily retire to. A pre-6am start demands coffee in the cup holders and our breath is taken away by an epic sunrise. The now considerably more lightweight Toyota is a joy on the winding tar. The roads feel smoother today; the difference a good nights sleep after a long day makes.
Throughout the remaining days the GR is given reprieve, as we choose to walk for miles around the local area. We’ve split our return journey up with a few nights in Dublin, and the Yaris shrinks nicely into the heavy city traffic, its peppy 1.6L three pot turbo thrumming as overtaking opportunities are snatched.
It’s the polar opposite situation from a track day but the baby bruiser Toyota is happy at both ends of the scale.
Back home, with over a thousand miles added to the odometer since we left home, living out of this WRC homologation hatchback for a week added to our trip immeasurably.
Wether it was relaxing on adaptive cruise with tunes streaming on the motorway, or dispatching winding cliff top coast roads at pace the GR Yaris brought the best out of nearly all situations. A fuel consumption average well into the early 30s mpg helps too.
Did I find it slightly too harsh, wanting for less cabin noise, or slightly more space? Sure. But I also know if it had compromised on any of those, the entire point of the rally-car for the road would have been lost.
I loved our time in West Cork, not in small part to being able to spend it in one of the greatest hatchbacks of all time.