Toyota Yaris GRMN

Editor’s Note: No, we won’t be getting the Toyota Yaris GRMN in the United States anytime soon. But a car this hot deserves attention on a global scale, and we know you readers enjoy a tasty bit of Forbidden Fruit as much as we do. Enjoy this First Drive from the Motor1.com UK team, and try not to get drool all over your keyboard.

Gazoo. What a great word, and one that we’ve had reason to think about thanks to this raucous little hatchback.

Meet the Toyota Yaris GRMN, so titled because it’s created in partnership with Toyota’s motorsport arm – Gazoo Racing – and was tuned by the “Meister of the Nurburgring.” Hence GRMN.

But while calling it the “Yaris Gazoo” was clearly just too easy, or perhaps unwise for a global application, we’ll forgive it the cumbersome title because this fizzy Yaris has the makings to be truly awesome.

The standard Yaris platform has been stiffened, lowered, and heavily tweaked, with braces to the front struts and chassis, Sachs dampers, a mechanical limited-slip differential, quickened steering, and a perky 1.8-litre supercharged motor putting out 209 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. Notably, at 2,502 pounds, it’s about the lightest car in its class.

So this is no shallow style statement; the GRMN really does mean business, if only in very lim...