This Toyota GR Yaris Is Made Just For Italian Rally Nerds

The special edition GR Yaris references Toyota’s first ever WRC winning car, and just 51 will be made for the Italian market

Mike Bartholomew

04 Sep 2024

Ordinarily, we probably wouldn’t report on an Italian market special edition car, but we’re such fans of the Toyota GR Yaris that, like fervent stans that follow a band on a world tour, we’ll cover pretty much anything related to this little terrier of a car.

Case in point: this is the Toyota GR Yaris TGR Italy Limited Edition. It is, effectively, a GR Yaris with some stripes, 51 units of which are going to be sold exclusively in Italy. Still, there’s a bit more to it that makes it worth a closer look.

Those red stripes, for instance, aren’t a thoughtless effort. They reference the livery of the Toyota Corolla Coupe that took the manufacturer’s first ever WRC rally victory – specifically, the Press-on-Regardless Rally that took place in Michigan in 1973, during the inaugural WRC season.

The TGR Italy’s spec is… unusual, too. It comes on exclusive Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo R semi-slick tyres, suggesting it’s being pitched at the ultra-keen helmsmith, the kind of person that wears Sparco racing booties to the shops and practises their heel-and-toe technique when slowing for a set of lights. And yet, it’s only going to be available with the GR Yaris’s new eight-speed automatic. Hmmm.

The 1.6-litre turbocharged triple’s 276bhp and 266lb ft of torque remain unchanged, and the TGR Italy also gets the GR Yaris’s Tech Pack as standard, throwing in an array of sensors and blind-spot monitors. Oh, and it wouldn’t be a limited-edition car without a numbered plaque.

Perhaps the biggest draw for the car’s 51 owners, though, is the rally-related goodies that come with its purchase. These include two VIP passes for the whole 2025 season of Gazoo Racing’s Italian division, a passenger ride in the Rally2 version of the GR Yaris as well as their name on the race car, and a selection of Gazoo Racing clothing.

If you are Italian, and enjoy standing in woods in a branded Toyota fleece, then the GR Yaris TGR Italy Limited Edition goes on sale on 9 September, at a cost of €67,500 (approx. £57,000).

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.