New Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance review – more aero, still brilliant

The Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance is exactly as described: a GR Yaris with an aero package to increase its performance on both road and track. It’s not a special limited edition, but rather a second continuous production variant to be offered alongside the regular GR Yaris that we know and love.

In the UK, however, the Aero Performance will be the only GR Yaris model available this year. Toyota can only bring a small batch of GR Yaris cars to Britain annually and the 2026 allocation – which sees deliveries beginning in March – will all be Aero Performance versions.

The upgraded aero comprises six new modifications. The most obvious is the generously portioned rear wing, which is manually adjustable in three stages from near-flat through mid to its steepest angle, with five degrees of difference between each. The aluminium bonnet has grown a reshaped power bulge with an integrated grille, to help get heat out of the engine bay during sustained hard driving. A more subtle tweak to the front lip spoiler helps reduce front-end lift, and outlet ducts on the trailing edge of the GR Yaris’s distinctive flared front wheelarches help reduce pressure in the wheel wells. 

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Slats in the rear bumper provide an extra exit point for air flowing under the car, reducing the drag coefficient. Out of sight, and also tidying up airflow at the rear, is a flat floor covering beneath the fuel tank area. Hiroyuki Yamada, engineer and project general manager for the GR Yaris, tells evo that each of the aero upgrades has come from motorsport and hands-on track testing.

The bonnet duct, for example, was developed on cars competing in the Japanese rally championship and the underfloor surfacing in circuit racing. Each part has a specific task; for example, the pressure-reducing ducts in the front arches are designed to help steering feel under braking and stability on corner entry, while the rear spoiler is all about high-speed handling and braking stability.

From a visual point of view, though, they all lend the GR Yaris a good dollop of attitude. All a matter of personal taste but I quite like the aero kit’s look: the rear wing and its GR-Four script on the endplates puts me in mind of the old Celica GT Four, and here on a snow-fringed mountain road it looks every inch the escaped rally car. Apposite, because we’re getting a (frustratingly very brief) taste of the Aero Performance the day after the 2026 Rallye Monte Carlo, on roads with sections that only yesterday served as stages on the rally itself. 

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 Inside, you immediately notice one major change versus the regular car’s cabin: the rehomed handbrake. It’s attached to the centre console next to the gearlever in a rally-esque near-vertical position, less than a handspan away from the steering wheel in this left-hand-drive car. In Yaris rally cars, it’s positioned here for easier handbrake turns but there’s a secondary benefit too: the empty space in the transmission tunnel moulding where the handbrake used to sit has been repurposed as a slim cubby hole slot, coincidentally a perfect size in which to stash a smartphone. 

Yamada-san says the move has meant re-routing the handbrake linkage. Nonetheless, its feel is perfect – minimal effort to pull, with your arm in a straight line rather than an awkward twist of the shoulder. Despite its appearance, it’s not a hydraulic handbrake but a conventional system, complete with push-button top to latch and unlatch. It’s not a big stretch of the imagination to picture some owners fitting an aftermarket cap, to turn the lever into a fly-off handbrake.

A change you can’t see is that the electric power steering software has been retuned for greater feel and smoother response. And on the road the Aero Performance feels immediately more responsive in handling and clearer in feedback than the regular GR Yaris. I can say that with confidence, having just driven a 2024-spec GR Yaris auto on the exact same roads before getting into the Aero. 

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The older car feels a little more numb, a little lazier changing direction; the Aero feels more eager, more precise, and more consistent in its responses. It’s a car you quickly feel at ease with. The difference isn’t night-and-day compared with the regular car but the Aero Performance is definitely more nimble and enjoyable, and has a more polished ride quality too.  

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Although Hiroyuki Yamada says he believes the aerodynamic benefits can be felt from as little as 30mph, these hairpin-heavy roads are certainly not the most natural place to feel the aero components do their best work. So there must be more at play here than simply returned power steering to make the Aero Performance feel more fun than the regular car. 

Further conversation reveals that is indeed the case: from the 2024-spec GR Yaris to the 2025 car in general, structural rigidity has been greatly improved, particularly at the front due to a greater number of welding points. This stiffer structure no doubt plays a big part in the more immediate and consistent steering response, and that’s something that the regular ’25-spec car will benefit from just as much as the Aero Performance. (It’s also worth noting that the Aero was on winter tyres and the ’24-spec car on summer tyres, winters naturally being a better fit for these chilly conditions.)

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The 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo engine is gruff at low revs but sounds, and feels, enjoyably brawny once it’s in its sweet spot. Torque has fallen from the 2024 car’s 288lb ft to 254lb ft owing to emissions regulations measures, but power remains the same at 276bhp. Like the original Circuit Pack car, and all 2024 UK models, the Aero has Torsen limited-slip diffs front and rear. There’s no change to the switchable modes for the 4WD system, which vary the amount of torque divided front to rear, sending more rearward under acceleration in Track mode.

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It’s a joy to be back in a manual GR Yaris, the six-speed H-pattern shift a tactile, baulk-free delight. The auto rev-matching system works a treat on downshifts, and can be disabled instantly with a touch of a button rather than a dig through a screen menu. The Aero Performance is manual-only, while the regular GR Yaris is still available with a choice of manual or eight-speed auto.

Despite the big wing, Toyota quotes the same 143mph top speed as for the regular GR Yaris – however, Hiroyuki Yamada mentions that the Aero Edition does use a little more fuel, based on driving test cars on his own commute.

Price and rivals

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Prospective buyers may need to budget a little more for super unleaded but, based on this first brief taste of the Aero Edition, they’ll be having too much fun to care. They’ll need more money to buy the car in the first place, too: in the UK, the Aero Performance is priced at £48,995, compared with £44,250 for the regular manual GR Yaris in 2024. 

The GR Yaris Aero Performance is pricey, its less under-the-radar looks may not appeal to all, and its availability in the UK is limited, but it’s the best iteration of the GR Yaris yet to be sold on these shores. And there's nothing else out there quite like it. 

Mercedes-AMG's A45 S is an altogether different sort of hyper hatch and considerably more expensive, at over £60k. Likewise Audi's RS3. For a Japanese singularity of focus, one of the last remaining FL5 Civic Type Rs in Honda's UK dealer network might fit the bill for similar money, if again not offering exactly the same set of skills.

Specs