Opinion: The 420hp Hybrid R Yaris Should be a Scion

By Marcus Slater - September 12, 2013

Scion has pretty much shut down all hope of a new model in next year, and that sucks. Not just because they could certainly use some new product, but because Toyota has been busy building some righteous stuff in their spare time. Like this 420 horsepower Yaris.

Yes, you read that correctly. 420 thundering, nausea inducing horses in a hatchback.

Toyota Motorsport TMG are the ones responsible for this hopelessly cool concept. The bulk of the power comes from a turbocharged 1.6 liter 4 cylinder. They’ve got it pegged at 300 hp to the front wheels, which is, frankly, insane. The Yaris weighs as much as a phone book. All that power to the front wheels just spells sin out to me.

Then again a 300hp, 1.6 liter is probably pretty laggy. That’s where the hybrid tech comes in. Powering the rear wheels are two 60 horsepower electric motors. While they definitely don’t pack enough power to turn the Yaris into a drifter, it does make it a more viable track car. Heck, it’d probably do pretty well as a WRC car.

Will Toyota build it? Not likely, but it is a cool idea of what we might see in the future. The car’s hybrid system is build around tech created for racing. Often advances made in technology while racing trickle down to production models, I don’t imagine this would be any different. Hybrids are Toyota’s “thing.” How cool would it be if some of that fast hybrid tech made it’s way to the Scion lineup? Clearly, low priced performance models have a place in the current market. Why not make this one a new model? Or maybe they could apply the same thought process to the Auris. They could call it the xY.

What do you think? Let me know your opinion on this racey Yaris in the comments!