Toyota Yaris Gazoo Hot Hatch Will Have Supercharged Engine
So we know that Toyota is making a Yaris hot hatch inspired by its World Rally Championship (WRC) rally car, and that it would have somewhere around double the amount of horsepower than the standard road car, but so far we had no idea where Toyota would find all of those ponies.
Now we know—and no, funny guy, it isn’t at the local stable. The Toyota Yaris, built by the Gazoo Racing Masters of the Nürburgring, will be powered by a 1.8-liter supercharged engine that will crank out at least 205 horsepower and possibly more.
That’s 0.2 more liters of displacement than we’d previously heard and also a different method of forced induction, as we’d originally believed the Yaris Gazoo GRMN would be equipped with a turbocharger.
Related: Check out the 2017 Toyota Yaris
Though turbochargers can theoretically output more power than superchargers while also returning better fuel economy, they’re also much more complex (and thus expensive and annoying to maintain) and have this annoying little thing called turbo lag.
If you’re trying to get a lot of extra power right off the line on the quick, superchargers are definitely the best choice (for more on this, check out our article on the difference between turbochargers and superchargers).
Other than this, we still have precious little information about the hotly-anticipated hot hatch, but the Geneva Motor Show where it will be revealed is fast approaching. Make sure to stay tuned to get all the latest details—oh, and write to Toyota about how much you want the car to come to the United States, while you’re at it.
Related: Toyota to share its powertrains with the automotive industry
Sources: Motor Authority, Jalopnik
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