Taylor Shead drove his 2008 Toyota Yaris nearly 1000 miles one way, from Texas to North Carolina, to compete with it in the Dragon HillClimb. Taylor wanted to hillclimb, and wanted to badly.
“It makes for a hillclimb car as much as it needs to, because it gets me there competing,” Taylor candidly says. “If I didn’t have the Yaris, …
My dad had an '09 (I think) base model Yaris with the 5-speed before upgrading to a Miata. He drove it well over 100,000 miles and loved every second of it.
If I remember correctly, there were even a handful of TRD goodies you could buy for it.
With factory performance parts or aftermarket performance parts available, it makes sense to build a little car like that. Truthfully, I didn't even think that the Yaris had ANY aftermarket parts available, but surprise surprise! This gets me thinking....$$$
Just jumped on CL and it seems like the half dozen cars out there have automatic transmissions and four doors. I'm not familiar with the Yaris at all, but I hope a 5-speed 2-door car isn't a unicorn.
I'm pleasantly surprised this isn't the GR Yaris or something else under a Yaris body.
Yes please! I love it.
I just remembered that these commercials were a thing:
Haha, I never saw those ads. Thanks for sharing.
Colin Wood said:My dad had an '09 (I think) base model Yaris with the 5-speed before upgrading to a Miata. He drove it well over 100,000 miles and loved every second of it.
If I remember correctly, there were even a handful of TRD goodies you could buy for it.
My 2010 Yaris had TRD lowering springs and the TRD rear sway bar. There were also TRD struts, a TRD muffler, a TRD drop-in air filter, and a TRD shifter.
I loved my 2010 3-door hatch, I drove that thing over 10 different states, about 40k miles, did a track day in it, autocrossed it a few times, and it never let me down.
Love this. These cars are deceptively fun to drive. Kudos to him. And I feel his pain on the MR2 woes.
Who says you need the latest, greatest and fastest car to have fun? Taylor seemed to have a blast with his Yaris.
This is the true "grassroots" of motorsports. Run what ya brung.
Who says you need at least 300hp before you can have fun?
In reply to DavyZ :
They are less common but I wouldn't say rare.
Thanks for the interview, J.A. It's surprising the amount of interest this car captures with the fans due to how normal and "boring" it is. It gets as much attention or more than the MR2 does!
In reply to NickD :
That's way cool. Thank you for sharing.
Why did you sell yours, NickD? I thought you still had it.
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