Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division has been quite busy. It had just rebranded, before which it also revealed a handful of quite interesting cars. Now, it’s unveiled yet another new model—a limited-edition one at that.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Internet, say hello to the Toyota GR Yaris Sebastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition. The name’s a mouthful, but it’s also pretty straightforward—it’s a special-edition hot hatch developed together with TGR rally driver and World Rally Championship legend Sebastian Ogier. It commemorates, obviously, his nine WRC titles. We’re getting a bit repetitive here, are we?
Let’s get into the special details first. This is based on the GR Yaris Aero Performance Package, hence, the sportier-than-usual look. What’s more important is that it gets a new 4WD ‘SEB’ mode to replace the ‘TRACK’ mode. This 4WD control has a 40:60 front-rear torque distribution while maintaining front-wheel steering responsiveness. This specific mode was developed together with Ogier himself.
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In addition to SEB, this limited-edition GR Yaris also has a ‘MORIZO’ mode to replace ‘GRAVEL.’ This mode maximizes the direct connection between the front and rear wheels during acceleration, and eases up only as needed during braking for improved traction and cornering. Toyota says Ogier chose to adopt the driving force distribution that Akio Toyoda himself developed through rally racing.
Toyota has also made the outer diameter of the steering wheel slightly smaller and laid out the modified steering-wheel switches independently, taking notes from its development of the GR Yaris Rally2 car. The vertical parking brake also has a newly developed leather-wrapped grip with exclusive gray stitching, and a new special serial-number plate to commemmorate Ogier’s 2025 WRC title can also be found inside the cabin.
On the outside, the Toyota GR Yaris Sebastian Ogier 9x World Champion Edition features a new ‘Black Gravite’ finish, which “symbolizes TGR's motorsports activities in 2025.” The Gravite is read as ‘graphite,’ which is the French word for gravity.
Speaking of French, the colors of the French national flag can be found on a subtle trim on the grille. The brake calipers are also finished in Ogier’s signature blue. Under the hood, however, it remains the same. There’s the 1.6-liter three-cylinder turbopetrol churning out 300hp and 400Nm of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission.
To the uninitiated in the world of rallying, Ogier is considered as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time. He is tied for the most WRC titles and has achieved 67 rally victories across his illustrious career. His most recent championship was won just last year.
Only 100 units of this special-edition GR Yaris will be sold in the Japanese market through a purchasing lottery, with applications starting later this year. An additional 100 units will be sold in “certain European markets.” In other words, don’t expect to see this in the Philippines.
More photos of the Toyota GR Yaris Sebastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition:
