Toyota Auris GRMN Is The Hot Hatch You Never Knew You Needed

The Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept was a welcomed surprise at this year’s Geneva Motor Show. Complete with a red, white, and black Gazoo Racing livery, an aggressive body kit, and a massive rear wing, it’s the high-powered sports car revival we’ve been waiting for from Toyota… and it could help spawn an entire range of performance products.

Already we’ve seen the Yaris with a similar GRMN performance treatment, but one artist believes the new Auris – also shown in Geneva – could see the same makeover. X-Tomi Design has digitally imagined the new Auris hatchback wearing the same red, white, and black livery found on the Yaris GRMN and the GR Supra Racing Concept before it.

The lower portion of the front grille gains a new red accenting piece, as do the headlights. The side profile receives a subtle red and black design, similar to the Yaris, new wheels, and a two-tone white-and-black paint job help pull the rendering together. It’s the aggressive Auris you never knew you wanted until now.

In terms of performance, the standard Auris comes powered by a range of engines. A 1.2-liter turbocharged unit comes standard, but a more powerful model with a 1.8-liter hybrid setup generates 122 horsepower (91 kilowatts), while a newly developed 2.0-liter hybrid system produces 180 hp (134 kW). A high-po GRMN model would be even more powerful still.

The current Yaris GRMN produces 209 hp (155 kW) and 184 pound-feet (249 Newton-meters) of torque via a 1.8-liter supercharged inline-four engine. That means the hot hatch is able to sprint to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in just 6.4 seconds, and on to a top speed of 143 mph (230 kmh). Expect a more-powerful Auris – if produced – to see similar performance figures.

Source: X-Tomi Design