Toyota has worked hard to earn back its enthusiast credibility in the last decade or so. From launching the Scion FR-S and recreating the GR Supra to developing a three-cylinder, all-wheel-drive hot hatchback, Toyota now has one of the strongest road-going enthusiast portfolios of any automaker at the moment, and that kind of engineering prowess has made its way over to the race track as well.
Truly successful motorsport ventures are hard to come by, at least not with hoards of money to burn, but Toyota has managed to balance its GR-86 Cup series as well as entries into World Rally Cross and the World Endurance Championship well. However, the Japanese automaker is taking some difficult, if prudent, steps when it comes to one of its most exciting recent vehicles, as Toyota announces it will not be racing its mid-engine GR Yaris concept just yet.
First teased at the Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this year, Toyota's GR Yaris M Concept was as close to a re-incarnated Renault Clio V6 RS as we've seen in ages. Aimed at the Super Taikyu endurance series, the GR Yaris M Concept was set to be a groundbreaking entry to the compact car-focused grid. The 34-year-old Super Taikyu series features GT3, GT4, and TCR classes, and the Toyota would have run in the specialized ST-Q class, meant for special-edition, non-homologated manufacturer racers. However, the plan has apparently hit a snag.
"While many challenges have been identified and improvements are ongoing, there are difficulties unique to midship-mounted vehicles in terms of braking, steering, and driving, and Toyota has therefore decided not to participate with this vehicle at Autopolis to refine it further," reads the announcement from Toyota.
The mid-engined Yaris remains unlikely to develop into a production car, but given the amount of attention the company is paying to the project, it seems almost certainly to be a prelude to some sort of series model — with the rumored return of the MR2 seeming like the most logical answer. Power and torque remain ambiguous, though the carmaker told German publication Auto Motor und Sport earlier this year that the new 2.0-liter performance motor could put out as much as 600 horsepower. Even so, it's unlikely we'll see final figures come to light anytime soon, as Toyota says it has plenty more vehicle development to do.
However, Toyota fanatics shouldn't be sullen. The announcement that Toyota won't enter its GR Yaris M Concept into the series yet doesn't mean the race car is doomed; in fact, the tail-end of Toyota's announcement suggests that the vehicle will see the pavement of a race track when the time is right.
"Toyota has set its sights on entering the vehicle in future races as it continues to pursue its goal of making ever-better motorsports-bred cars," the release concludes.
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