Yaris Tuning

"Turning the Yaris into a hot hatch. "

Toyota aimed the Yaris at the young driver when they produced this urban compact car.

Unusually for such a small car it has a rather high roof line and has a very cheeky modern design.

Now if you want a fun Yaris you should really ignore the 1.0 and 1.3 engines.

The 1.5 interestingly came in a turbo form (engine code 1NZ-FE I4) although there were some internal differences in the engines it shows that the block can handle a lot more power than the 1.5 NASP engine puts out.

Many owners complained about the handling, with excessive body roll and lack of lateral grip being the main complaints.

This was addressed to a large degree in the sporty 1.5 model but even this can be improved further with some suspension mods and careful choice of tyre selection.

Get a set of coil overs and drop the car no more than 35-40mm. A rear anti roll bar and strut brace will help improve the cornering abilities of this little rocket.

Now we shall turn our attention to the engine, which is where most Torque Cars members spend their time and money.

 Most of the Yaris models were built for economy and every facet of the engine was built with this in mind. Adding just a panel filter and sports exhaust will do little to provide a noticeable power increase.

Ideally you should get a fast road cam and pay attention to the head. A professional porting and gas flowed head will pay dividends when it comes to power. We are still only talking about a relatively modest increase of power in the order of around 15bhp.

A fast road cam will also lift the power when combined with other modifications. Don't get a very agressive profile as this will affect the tickover and ruin the round town flexibility of the car.

For the ultimate power hike TorqueCars recommend a supercharger kit. These are easier to setup than a turbo and if set to low boost will give power gains in the order of 30-40%.

A major power hike like this will need to be backed up with better fuel delivery so expect to uprate the injectors and fuel pump to keep things running smoothly.

Braking modifications should also be quite high up in your Yaris tuning project. Bigger disks and higher friction pads will really improve the stopping and we have noted faster lap times in the Yaris with better brakes! Never overlook the importance of stopping the car.

The MK2 Yaris has now hit the roads and is an improvement on the original. The styling is a little more edgy and modern and both power and economy have been improved. Thankfully our tuning tips still stand on the Mk2.

In any case we would recommend ignoring the 1.0 Yaris as a viable project, and focus your attention on the larger engined 1.3, 1.5, 1.6 andthe 1.8 models. The larger your starting point the greater the power gain.

The following modifications are usually performed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you begin.

Getting the right mods for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road.

Stage 1 mods: Exhaust, Panel air filter, Remap, lighter flywheel

Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, ported and polished head, fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades, 

Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), competition cam.

The ultimate power gains come from turbo kits and supercharger kits. When set to low boost levels you can use the standard internals and retain the cars ride quality and to a degree the economy. Discuss advanced tuning mods in our forum with our friendly members and browse our tuning articles which will give you a good overview of where you can go with your project.

To discuss Yaris tuning further, why not join our very friendly forum where you can swap tips, suggestions and read up on our members Yaris projects.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Toyota. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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