Driven: 2002 Toyota Yaris T-sport

Toyota Yaris T-sport - the car that nobody knew existed

Marketed as a "warm hatch" and overlooked by absolutely everybody the Toyota Yaris T-Sport was introduced to the European market in 2001. Nobody really noticed its potential and it was bought and driven only by middle-aged women that liked it for its looks. What was underneath, however is another story. Below the cute,lovable and entirely unintimidating shell hides a true old school hot hatch from the 90s.

The T-sport was my first car and it taught me a lot about driving. It taught me a lot about lift off oversteer - something that hardcore hot hatches normally do. The lack of ESP wasn't of any help either but without it holding my hand I quickly learned to feel every inch of the car as it is losing grip and introduce minor corrections. Corrections that were much smoother than those of an ESP. That meant I developed an ability to push the car to the limit and keep it there because I knew way better than any computer or sensor exactly where the limit was. An ability that easily translated to every vehicle I have driven ever since. Being a FWD car the T-sport tended to understeer  and that is not a big surprise but because of its short wheelbase as soon as you lift the throttle the back stands out and this can be corrected easily by applying power. And trust me a little throttle can make the difference while sliding sideways, in the mountains, in the snow, during the night.

The handling department was where the T-sport excelled at. It had a lower and stiffer suspension than the standard Yaris and beefier front and rear disc brakes. Brake fade occured way later than expected. The full weight of a  T-sport was only 960 kg. For a comparison a VW Golf III GTi weights 1250 kg. On tight twisty roads the T-sport was almost unbeatable - the low weight and short gear ratios meant that the small Yaris could keep up and sometimes overtake cars that are at least 100 horsepower more powerful.

On the motorway, however, things were not so good. The short gear ratios that were so helpful on the twistys become the worst problem of the car. At motorway speeds the Yaris sits at at least 4500 rpm and your head soon is about to explode from the noise. The light weight and fast steering ratio that make the T-sport so nimble and sharp on b-roads now make the car feel like you are driving a go-kart and every time you even look at the steering wheel and think about changing direction results in a big reaction from the car and soon you end up concentrating really hard just to keep the car straight.

The engine inside the T-sport is noteworthy as well - the 1.5 liter engine produces 109 horsepower and 145 nm of torque. Not a lot you might say but the fuel consumption was the real surprise - from 47mpg on the motorway to 28 mpg on the track. 28 mpg is a huge achievement because I know people who had a Citroen Saxo VTS and were bragging that it did 24 mpg. The small fuel consumption is due to the fact that the engine has a system called variable valve timing that is pretty much standard on modern cars but back in 2001 not many cars had it and especially the Yaris' main rivals. To simply explain this system - when the car is pushed, the cams are at a maximum aggressive profile to provide max power and when the car is driven slowly the cams adopt a less aggressive profile and thus fuel is saved at the cost of a small performance loss.

Inside the T-sport benefitted from a leather wrapped steering wheel and gear lever which were very comfortable to hold and provided excellent grip.  The seats were the biggest difference between the standard Yaris and the T-sport and they were superb. Having driven a standard Yaris I can confidently say that a seat can make a huge difference. The side supports hug you in place and hold you through even the tightest of corners. The fact that the seats were so good may partly be due to the fact that they were made by Recaro - one of the most famous and renowned seat makers in the world.  The only problem I had with the interior is that I'm 190 cm tall and the T-sport was clearly designed for the much shorter Japanese.  So my legs get stuck in an uncomfortable position under the steering wheel because the pedals are too close. This is something easily amendable on a normal car by moving the seat back and the wheel column towards you until you find a comfortable position. Not the case with the T-sport. Toyota didn't bother to include forward and backward movement to the steering column. At the end of the day I had two options to choose from: either my hands to get tired from reaching to the steering wheel or my feet to get tired from being stuck under it.

Despite the little niggles, the Yaris T-sport grew on me and has a special place in my heart as the car that taught me the basics of driving and I had great fun learning. It also never went wrong in 10 years of driving. Talk about Japanese reliability. I leave you with what a T-sport can do if it's properly modified.