Behold Toyota’s new hot hatch and the first GRMN branded performance road special for Europe.

Bit confused? That acronym stands for ‘Gazoo Racing Meisters of Nürburgring’. ‘Gazoo Racing’ is Toyota’s de-facto factory motorsport arm that will offer performance road models at several levels.

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Forged 17-inch alloy wheels from BBS save 2kg per corner and are wrapped with 205mm-wide Bridgestone Potenza RE050As and stopped by uprated disc brakes and four-pot front calipers.

The engine is a supercharged 1.8-litre petrol four-pot built by Toyota UK and tuned by Lotus. Producing 156kW just shy of 7000rpm and 250Nm, it makes a refreshing change from the smaller-capacity turbos within this niche. And, fitted with a centre-exit exhaust designed for this car, it sounds great when it’s working hard: waspish, brassy, rough-edged.

The Yaris GRMN doesn’t have the low-rev torque to bludgeon its way down short straights with the vigour of something more powerful and expensive, but its engine responds very crisply indeed, zips to the 7000rpm redline and makes the accelerator feel like it operates in an entirely analogue and linear fashion – unlike big-boosted turbo rivals.

Instead, it takes a perceptible moment to settle on its outside wheels before changing direction and doesn’t point or rotate underneath you in the same way. But that’s not to suggest the car isn’t an engaging, lively type.

The Yaris’s body control is very good and its damping superbly tuned, allowing enough short-wave suppleness to keep the body settled over smaller lumps and bumps, but checking it firmly over bigger ones.

Whether that amounts to a mini hatch worth paying $46,493 for is in one way irrelevant: the Yaris GRMN won’t come here.

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What matters most is Toyota has created a driver’s car worthy of an enthusiastic following that augurs well for things to come, particular when Gazoo Racing turns its attention to a more promising base car – say, just for argument’s sake, next year’s new Supra.

2018 TOYOTA YARIS GRMN SPECS: Engine: 1798cc inline-4cyl, DOHC, 16v, supercharger Power: 156kW @ 6800rpm Torque: 250Nm @ 4800rpm Weight: 1135kg 0-100km/h: 6.4sec (claimed) Price: $46,493

Like: Blower whine; damping tune; seats Dislike: Lumpy steering; lack of agility; stickers; price Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars