If you try hard enough, anything can be turned into a race car. It never fails to amuse us when we see something that doesn’t belong in motorsport, well, competing in motorsport.
We’ve seen station wagons, minivans, and a few more oddities take on racing. That brings us neatly to the Toyota Yaris Cross.
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The Yaris Cross is a practical, sensible subcompact crossover. If you’re in the market for one, we won’t blame you. There’s nothing wrong with going for a logical choice of vehicle. But one thing it isn’t is sporty or thrilling. You can tack on GR badges on it if you want, but it wouldn’t make a difference.
Surprise, then that Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Thailand chose the crossover to be its steed for the RAAT Thailand Rally Championship 2024. Not only that, the version the team chose was the hybrid model. Right out the box, electrified Toyota Yaris Cross puts out a combined output of 110hp and is mated to an eCVT. Not exactly ingredients for a race car, but that didn’t stop the team.
The result is an adorably aggressive-looking crossover sporting rally tires and competition suspension. As far as we can tell, the powertrain was left mostly standard, but most of the magic is under the chassis. It’s also been stripped out and fitted with a roll cage. Want to see it in action? Check out the short video below.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by TOYOTAGAZOORacingTeamThailand (@toyotagazooracingteamthailand)
Okay, it’s nothing like the fire-breathing WRC1 GR Yaris, but this Yaris Cross rally car does the job. In the first round of the championship season, it already proved its worth. Not only did it finish the rally, the team placed first in its class and finished 18th overall out of 52 runners. A strong competition debut.
We can expect to see more of the rally Yaris Cross as the season progresses. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the championship, too. Who knows? It might just clinch the title in its first try.
