Toyota President Akio Toyota is an interesting guy who probably doesn’t fit your idea of the boss of a big car company. Its uniqueness is also proved by its role in the development of the sharp Yaris.
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By the way, Toyoda, the grandson of Kiichir Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Motor Corporation, has been much more involved in the development of the fast hatchback than you might expect.
As revealed by a video released by Gazoo Racing’s sports division, Toyoda also helped the team as a test driver. But not just in a promotional way to make it look nice …
The carmaker’s president is an avid driver and even an occasional racer who uses the nickname TGR (Toyota Gazoo Racing) Master Driver Morizo on the circuits. And such a guy just couldn’t control the sharp Yaris’s development from the office.
In addition, Toyoda admits that GR Yaris is his dream child. Although Toyota offers the GT86 and Supra sports models, it wanted the carmaker to come up with a sports car that it can develop on its own.
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And so was born GR Yaris, where it is remarkable that he was derived from a successful racing special for the World Rally Championship. During the development, the president of the carmaker personally tested the test mules and then passed on his impressions and feelings to the engineers. In the already mentioned video, for example, he talks about understeer. And it also seems that his rides didn’t always go smoothly.
It is worth mentioning that Tommi Mäkinen, one of the most successful drivers in the WRC championship and the current rally manager of the Toyota Gazoo Racing team, also took part in the development of the car.
As a reminder, GR Yaris is a three-door special with a distinctive construction. The drive is provided by a 1.6-liter, turbocharged, three-cylinder with an output of 192 kW and a torque of 360 Nm, combined with a six-speed manual and all-wheel drive. The GR Yaris accelerates from 0-100 km / h in 5.2 seconds and travels at a top speed of 230 km / h.
Another interesting news concerns the non-traditional hot-hatch. In Australia, where Toyota has set aside a 1000-piece series of sharp Yaris, this thousand cars sold out in just six days. At the same time, the carmaker assumed that it would take her at least a year to find a buyer for the cars.
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