Toyota’s cologne-based motorsport arm TRM is building a Yaris World Rally Car to be completed by 2014 as it continues to show signs of a World Championship return.
Toyota last contested the WRC’s top tier in 1999 competing with the Corolla WRC.
The Yaris WRC is rumoured to already be build, however Pascal Vasselon, technical director of Toyota’s LMP1 operation is not labelling a time of entry back to the WRC
“We have not decided on the time of our WRC entry,” he told Autosport.com.
The addition of Toyota would see a healthy return to the golden era of rallying with the WRC currently enjoying a strong showing of manufacturers with Citroen, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Ford all heavily represented.
“From TMG, we are very much interested in coming back to the World Rally Championship,” A TRM company spokesman said.
“We start testing the Yaris World Rally Car next year, running it with our 1.6-litre turbo engine.
“This will be a pretty low-key programme, run in order for us to gain experience of the car and to refresh and build our knowledge base on the technical side of running a World Rally Car.”
The manufacturer holds an impressive WRC record with three manufacturers titles, four drivers championships, 43 rally wins and 144 podiums between 1973-1999.
Australian Neal Bates contested several Australian Rally Championships in the 90s behind the wheel of Toyota WRC machinery picking up the championship crown three years running from 1993-95 behind the wheel of a Celica GT-Four.
