This mid-engined Toyota GR Yaris mule could be a preview of the next MR2
Toyota’s mid-engined GR Yaris M goes racing with the new G20E high-performance petrol engine, and it could offer our first look at the next MR2
Toyota has no interest in giving up on the performance car, in fact it plans to double down on its strategy to push its Gazoo Racing division to design and develop even more models from the GR Yaris through to the GR GT supercar. And next off the line will be a new mid-engined sub £50,000 sports car that, as rumoured, could be the new MR2. Or it could be the return of the Celica or the GR Yaris could continue as a Renault Clio V6 type hyper-hatch…
Rumours of a return of the MR2 have been doing the rounds since late 2024 and were almost confirmed when Toyota presented a mid-engined GR Yaris test mule in January 2025 at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Since then, GR has continued to develop the concept including entering it in the Fuji 24 Hour race this month where it qualified 26th, with company chairman Akio Toyoda at the wheel.
> Toyota’s new 400bhp four-cylinder aims squarely at Mercedes-AMG
Powered by the company’s new G20E 2-litre turbo-charged engine revealed November 2025, a development of the 1.6-litre three-cylinder motor fitted to the current GR Yaris and Corolla models, the GR Yaris M competed in the ST-Q Exhibition class alongside the company’s hydrogen powered GR Corolla. Power outputs for GR’s next generation four-cylinder engine are expected to be in the region of 400bhp, up from the current Corolla’s 300bhp.
As with both GR hot hatches, the new mid-engined production car is expected to be all-wheel drive, but what isn’t known is what body style it will adopt. With both GR86 and Supra production all but over, GR has space for a coupe in its line-up, and with the positioning of the engine in the GR Yaris M prototype all suggestions have led to the return of the MR2.
However, speaking to evo at the Fuji 24-hour race where the GR Yaris M was competing, Toyoda suggested that a number of key decisions had yet to be made for its new sports car, including its seating configuration - a strict two-seater or 2+2 coupe - although the concepts being tested and evaluated are all mid-engined cars.
To add further intrigue (or confusion, delete as applicable) Toyota is also testing its new World Rally Championship car that will run to WRC27 technical regulations, which replace the current Rally 1 rules. These new regulations require manufacturers to utilise a spec-spaceframe chassis that’s built to a uniformed footprint. The power source must be a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine producing in the region of 290bhp with running, suspension and brakes taken from the current Rally 2 regulations and updated accordingly. The body design is free, which is why Toyota has been seen testing a two-door coupe on Rally Raid events resulting in some saying it’s the new Celica.
> Toyota GR Corolla review - why the GR Yaris’s big brother will be worth the wait
As has been the case with Toyota’s development of its GR performance division, its decision to build a new sports coupe is driven by a desire to create exciting performance cars that will appeal to existing customers and enthusiasts, rather than force them into electric performance cars, as other manufacturers are attempting to do, that ultimately fail due to the lack of interest. At the end of May, sister company Lexus announced it was canning its flagship all-electric saloon and the electric version of the Toyota GR GT, previewed by the LFA Concept, could also be quietly sidelined.
‘In the past Toyota had big meetings. Everyone was talking about specifications and horsepower that has to be the best in the world. But I want us to build a car that I love and our customers love,’ explained Toyoda speaking to evo.
‘In the past we have built cars to suit the business, to make money. But I want us to also make cars that people love. Because I love cars and I need to show our people that Toyota loves cars too.’ In its last financial year Toyota booked a $26bn profit, which was a near 20 per cent drop on the previous year and the third consecutive year profits have fallen. In 2025 Toyota was still the world’s largest car manufacturer, producing over 11m vehicles, three-million more than second place Volkswagen Group.
Toyota has never been a company to follow convention. It has been criticised by others for being slow to market with 100 per cent battery electric vehicles, preferring plug-in and mild/self-charging hybrids. And it continues to develop hydrogen powertrains with BMW too, with the first production fuel-cell X5 due in 2028.
The growth of its GR performance brand is Toyota’s most prominent example of building cars that excite and entertain first and foremost. In the same 24 hour race the GR Yaris M contested, Gazoo Racing also entered its hydrogen powered Corolla and at this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, it will demonstrate its hydrogen powered WEC Hypercar.
‘Toyota is a global company operating in markets all over the world, including continents such as Africa where they don't have [the] electricity [infrastructure for electric cars]. So we have to be at least competitive in all energy sources. We have to be very good at hydrogen. We have to be good with battery technology. We have to have engines that are efficient with sustainable fuels. So I think: which powertrain will the customer choose in that market? I can’t decide which one they have to choose. But always the enemy is CO2,’ explained Toyoda.
What remains clear with Toyota’s GR division is that the product comes before the market insight, and at the heart of that product’s development is Toyoda himself. The former president who took on the role of Chairman in 2023 has been instrumental in the development of Toyota’s performance cars. The GT86 was the result of his desire to provide an affordable, accessible and tuneable sports car for the next generation of Toyota customers. The GR Yaris was only conceived as a homologation requirement for Toyota’s continual commitment to the World Rally Championship, but when the regulations changed and there was no longer a requirement to build such a bespoke road car Toyoda insisted his engineers carried on. ‘We didn’t make any money at first, but its success now means we are. The business is happy about that.’
As with the GT86, the return of the Supra in 2019 required Toyota to think laterally about how it could bring the car to market. So while the former was a collaboration with Subaru, Toyota worked with BMW on its six-cylinder coupe, the German giant struggled to justify its next Z4 development budget and Toyoda saw an opportunity. ‘We helped Subaru. We helped BMW. Toyota led the development on both. We built two cars we loved.’ The forthcoming GR GT front-engined V8 supercar is another pure Toyota and Gazoo Racing product.
Akio Toyoda’s approach to not only sports cars but everything Toyota and Lexus, is driven not by what experts think consumers want but what he believes is a good car. Or rather a great car. With the GR Yaris M everything has been led by Toyoda’s love of cars. Its conception, design and development is much more a ‘design it and they will come’ philosophy, rather than today’s ‘we’ve built this, you must buy it’ approach of so many car manufacturers. Regardless of whether the mid-engined Yaris is launched as an MR2, Celica or a GR Yaris one thing is for certain and that is it will have been created by people you love cars.
