Our collective hats here at PD have been well and truly taken off to the team at Powertune Australia, who have managed to extract supercar power figures from Toyota’s 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder.
The GR Yaris, named the ‘Rodent’, was commissioned for the founder of Rode Microphones, Peter Freedman – obviously a Group B rally fan – and now has a creation that would make even those cars blush.
Powertune Australia, with the help of a new turbocharger, stronger head gasket, upgraded intercooler, Akrapovic exhaust system and a Motec ECU to handle all the extra power says this GR Yaris offers outputs of 545kW at 8117rpm. We’re not sure exactly how much torque is on offer, though it’s fair to assume an earth-shattering figure.
As a reminder, the GR Yaris’s G16E-GTS power unit produces 200kW/370Nm in stock form, with the same 1.6-litre three-cylinder engine delivering 221kW/370Nm in the GR Corolla.
Power is thrown to all four wheels via a new X-Shift sequential transmission with a very necessary beefed-up clutch. Interestingly, reports are swirling that Toyota has been testing out a new torque-converter automatic in a GR Yaris prototype, which may well make it to production in the future.
For those worried the unit is about one launch away from exploding, Powertune says that it has thrown the Rodent onto the dyno a total of 30 times now, and is confident in its reliability.
