Can the Toyota GR Yaris beat the Honda Civic Type R in a drag race?

It has been confirmed that the Toyota GR Yaris is indeed coming to the Philippines this year. In fact, there are already two posts on the official Toyota Motor Philippines Facebook page declaring its impending arrival. The first one shows a short video of the GR Yaris, performing power slides on a desert. 

We also talked about what you can expect from this very hot hatch in terms of engine specifications, features, etc. To review, it uses a 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-3 engine capable of making up to 257 horsepower and 360 Nm. The said engine is mated to a five-speed intelligent manual transmission. Combined with its very light overall weight of 1,280 kg, we can expect this car to be very agile.  

The all-wheel-drive, 1.9-liter turbo Toyota GR Yaris

To this end, people have been comparing the Toyota GR Yaris with the Honda Civic Type R, the high-performance version of the famous Civic. Of note, the Civic Type R’s inline-4 can produce up to 306 horsepower and 400 Nm of torque. It uses a six-speed manual. It is, however, considerably heavier than the GR Yaris with its curb weight of 1,407 kg. 

In the UK market where the GR Yaris is already available, Carwow, a car review channel, pitted the Toyota-made hot hatch against the larger Honda-made sports car in a drag race. Of note, the track was wet when they filmed the video. 

As you can see from the video, the GR Yaris defeated the Civic Type R from a standstill. On the rolling start, however, the Civic Type R gained an advantage.

Note that on the first rolling start race, they started off by putting the cars in comfort mode then shifting to sport mode when the race was initiated. On the second rolling race, they started off with the car’s respective sport modes. On this occasion, the GR Yaris actually kept up good but was still beaten by the Civic. 

An Australian Youtube channel called Motor, in turn raced the GR Yaris against the Honda Civic Type R on a dry track. Skip to the 8:00 mark to view the drag race.

>>> Related: Watch: Toyota GR Yaris proves its mettle in the moose test

Yaris GR vs Civic Type R: which is faster at the drag strip!? | MOTOR

As you saw from both videos, the GR Yaris defeated the Honda Civic Type R soundly save for Carwow’s rolling start drag races. As for the regular from-the-line start drag races, the GR Yaris got off the starting line much faster and has managed to maintain a considerable lead.  

How did this happen? Well, the GR Yaris is an all-wheel-drive vehicle. As such, we think that it was able to put down power more evenly than the front-wheel-drive only Civic Type R. Moreover, the GR Yaris is significantly lighter than the Honda-made sports car.  

The front-wheel-drive, 2.0-liter Honda Civic Type R

To further corroborate the results of those aforementioned races, note that the GR Yaris’ official 0-100 kph time is at 5.0 seconds. That’s a bit faster than the official Honda Civic Type R’s 0-100 kph time of 5.9 seconds. In motorsport, especially in drag racing, even mere milliseconds can mean a lot.  

To this end, it looks like the Toyota GR Yaris can definitely compete against the Honda Civic Type R.

Moreover, this kind of performance that the GR Yaris has shown will definitely catch the attention of local racers, who will eventually make great use of the said car in their respective racing events. We daresay that’s all the more reason to get excited about this upcoming hot hatch. 

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