Akio Toyoda Got Some Seat Time In Toyota’s New WRC Competitor

Akio Toyoda is a unique executive for many reasons. Most notable among them is that he is willing to personally sign off on a car as absurdly specialized as the standard GR Yaris, entirely because he sees value in building great road cars born from great race cars. But he also has an enthusiasm for actually driving the fast cars his company builds that stands out, particularly as he continues to race them under his less-than-secret pseudonym “Morizo” at events like the Nurburging 24. It is that interest that makes him the most qualified top automotive executive in the world to actually drive a WRC car at its launch event.

So, of course, he did that earlier this week.

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In a section of a video announcing both cars, “Morizo” took the Rally1-spec GR Yaris WRC entrant around a parking lot, seemingly the same parking lot he put the base GR Yaris through its paces at last month. Former rally driver and current Toyota WRC team principal Jari-Matti Latvala ran a camouflaged version of the rally car there, but here it’s Mr. Toyoda himself getting runs in.

Immediately afterward, he gave us our best look at the newly-announced GRMN Yaris yet in runs around the same parking lot. The GRMN Yaris looks unsurprisingly fit for hooning with Toyoda behind the wheel, with the all-wheel drive Yaris almost as quick to snap around cones in complete control as its hybrid, rally-ready racing equivalent.

Via Periodismo del Motor.

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