TRD/Modellista Turbo Yaris revealed at TAS
Although the Yaris hasn't piqued the interest of small car enthusiasts Stateside as much as Honda's Fit, there is a large contingent of tuners in both Japan and Europe that have turned their attention to Toyota's sub-compact three- and five-door hatch.
For the Tokyo Auto Salon, Modellista and TRD wanted to tap into that enthusiasm and teamed up to create the Modellista Concept. Based off the standard Yaris (or Vitz if you hail from the Land of the Rising Sun), the two in-house tuners strapped a turbo to the 1.5-liter engine to produce 150 HP and 144 lb.-ft. of torque.
To handle the added oomph, they equipped the Yaris with a limited slip differential, as well as a new suspension setup that drops the hatch down about 20 mm. The 17-inch OZ wheels and four-piece body kit, complete with intercooler-friendly front fascia, accentuates the new stance.
According to AutoExpress, a version of this Yaris will go on sale in Japan within the next few months, although nothing was mentioned about European or American offerings.
Make the jump for a couple more pics.
[Sources: AutoExpress, Toyota, Modellista]
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg "2011 Audi A8: Live from Miami")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SaveGas 9:58AM (1/24/2007)
Sexy setup! Perhaps they can realease this stateside so I can adapt it my XB.
Reply
Tim UF 10:38AM (1/24/2007)
what about the yaris TS or what it was, with the corolla gts engine?
Reply
Tim UF 10:39AM (1/24/2007)
or maybe it was just the corolla engine...
Reply
felipe 10:57AM (1/24/2007)
turbo yaris? almost as cool as a Turbo Yugo or a AMC Pacer with a supercharger.
Reply
Tim UF 11:42AM (1/24/2007)
Felipe, dont hate on toyota for making a sportier car... we want to positively reinforce any sprty car they make, i nthe hopes that we may see one here in the US!
Reply
Peter 2:13PM (1/24/2007)
That'd make a nice successor to the Starlet. I like it.
Reply
Rodrigo 1:24PM (1/24/2007)
"5. Felipe, dont hate on toyota for making a sportier car... we want to positively reinforce any sprty car they make, i nthe hopes that we may see one here in the US!
Posted at 11:42AM on Jan 24th 2007 by Tim UF"
I see your point, but why not offer a sexier looking car as a sporty alternative, I mean, c'mon, Yaris? It's a damn econobox, and an ugly one at that. Kinda like the same feeling I have for 2002-2003 imprezas, cool performance, AWD, but ugly as sin.
Reply
ruggels 1:43PM (1/24/2007)
Who wants to explain to me why Honda and Toyota can't produce comparable blown small displacement engines to VW? Previously it was the Fit producing a good deal less power/torque then VW's TSI, and now Toyota's following suite. Do they just have a lot less experience with Blown engines? what's the deal? And again, why not a powerful NA design, or more powerful blown engine? Cost? Lightness of the car? I guess it's silly to assume automakers would be cognizant of each other and continue to compete and better each other's designs. Oh well. Snore.
Reply
ABC123 1:44PM (1/24/2007)
Nice, although its pretty ugly, i'd still take for a spin around the track ;)
Reply
bloodnok 4:31PM (1/24/2007)
i'm amazed that the yaris is considered a small car. the only thing small about ours is its boot ...
Reply
Tim UF 2:12PM (1/24/2007)
Well, Rodrigo, I would imagine that the tuners and TRD have to work with what they are given... but to counter your call for a sexier alternative: Can you name one in toyota's line-up? In my opinion, their designs since their last forced induction cars (MR2 Turbo, Supra TT, and the Previa LE S/C), none of their designs have been particularly eye-catching. I guess the Celica GTS was pretty good, but they cancelled that; and the bug-eyed MR2Spyder should've looked more like veilside's interpretation of it than the frogger looking thing that ended up on dealer lots.
Design discouraged a lot of potential buyers, and loss of buyers discouraged management, whose logic decided "these are not selling, people must not want a sporty toyota". People want sporty toyota's, just not ugly sporty toyotas.
I think Toyota needs to get whoever their lead designer was back in the early/mid 90's back; then maybe we will see some more inspired toyota designs again.
Reply
Fabulo 5:02PM (1/24/2007)
Felipe, the Pacer was available with a 5.0L V8. I'm too young to actually have the chance to drive one, but I'm guessing that one was doing ok without a supercharger. Nevertheless, you can never have too much power, so a blown V8 pacer could be cool.
Yugo, on the other hand, yes, being a toilet seat in a tincan with wheels, adding power would be criminal, with a turbo you probably would break the car in half at the first throttle application. And that's if the engine did not explode from just starting it.
We americans won't ever get exciting hi-po compacts like that. It's all well known that we only care about cubic inches, 0-60 mph acceleration and towing boats. All we get is 752 trims and variations of a Mustang.
Also, Toyota is hard at work to kill its sporty image. It started with the death of the Supra, then the celica, then the corolla xrs (even though it may not have ever pretended to be sporty) even the 180 HP matrix has been killed.
Reply
Pip 10:53AM (1/31/2007)
Looks like an uglier version of the Scion xA. I couldn't imagine 150hp in something that small, you would just be sitting there spinning your tires through all the gears.
Reply
Esprit bird 11:06PM (2/06/2007)
There's just some cars that don't need to be fast... i mean don't get me wrong, i love turbo'd cars, they are fantastic! but seriosly, how dumb will you look pulling up to an RX7 with a Turbo Yaris??
Reply
abu 7:52PM (2/18/2007)
toyota yaris is more low profile of oters turbo engine vehicles...but here Turbo Concept gets specially designed instrumentation, which includes a turbo boost gauge, plus a leatherbound steering wheel and gearknob.
Reply