Toyota debuts GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition

MANILA: Less than a month after launching the GR Yaris Morizo RR Edition at the 2026 Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota Motor Corporation rolled out the GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition. 

Per its name, the GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition honors Sébastien Ogier’s ninth title for the World Rally Championship (WRC).  Ogier won the 2025 season after a neck-and-neck battle with competitors that concluded in dramatic fashion at the 2026 Rally Saudi Arabia. 

Being a special Toyota GR Yaris bearing a rally racer’s name, this all-new variant has several tricks up its sleeve that emphasize the platform’s capability as a rally car. 

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Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition: specs, features

As mentioned above, the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition packs unique features that were engineered to reflect the champion rally racer’s preferences. 

For starters, its four-wheel-drive system, which was developed together with Ogier, received a “SEB” mode, which replaces the standard “track” mode of the GR Yaris. 

Once activated, the SEB mode provides a 40:60 front/rear torque distribution. Doing so provides more force to the rear wheels of the car to facilitate more aggressive driving, as well as “improved harmony between the car and driver, and better vehicle control at high speeds.

In addition, the regular GR Yaris’ Gravel mode was replaced with “Morizo” mode. Per Toyota, this maximizes the binding force between front and rear wheels during acceleration, and eases up automatically when braking is applied. The said mode enhances cornering performance and traction. 

As the Japanese car maker shared, Ogier also preferred the same driving force distribution favored by Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio Toyota, also known as Morizo. As such, it was also appropriate to add Morizo mode to the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition. 

At the moment, Toyota has not disclosed the engine specs of the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition. We can surmise, however, that it uses the same 1.6-liter turbocharged engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission. 

On the Philippine-spec version, the said three-cylinder, dual-overhead-cam engine can churn out 257 horsepower and 390 Newton-meters of torque. 

The interior of the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition, meanwhile, received more Ogier touches - components that were designed with the champion racer’s preferences in mind. 

The steering wheel of the car, for example, has a smaller outer diameter than the regular Toyota GR Yaris. The steering wheel-mounted buttons also received an “individualized” layout for ease of use, even in the heat of competition. Toyota also opted to use a vertical hand brake - a similar setup found on most WRC cars. 

Other unique interior touches present on the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Exclusive GR TFT gauge display
• Tricolor stitching (steering wheel)
• Leather upholstery
• Sébastien Ogier 9X World Champion serial number plate

Unique Sébastien Ogier-inspired details can also be found on the exterior of the car. 

Its color, for instance, is the new “Black Gravite,” exclusively developed for the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition. The said color is said to represent Toyota Gazoo Racing’s motorsport activities in 2025. 

Ogier’s signature blue color can likewise be found on the car’s GR brake calipers, while the tri-color of the French flag - Ogier’s home country- is applied on a section of the vehicle’s grille. 

The exterior also gets the same body kit as the GR Yaris “Aero Performance Package.” Specific parts include a huge rear wing, an aluminum hood with a large duct, a front lip spoiler, finder ducts, fuel tank protective covers, and rear bumper ducts. 

Availability

As of this writing, the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition is currently under development. 

It was stated by the Japanese marque, however, that it will be launched for the Japanese Domestic Market sometime between March-May 2026. 

Moreover, only 100 units of the said model will be produced, and to get the right to buy the car, one has to win a “purchasing lottery” via Toyota Gazoo Racing’s official GR app. 

Following its launch in Japan, an additional 100 units will be introduced in Europe. 

With that said, the chances of the Toyota GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition seeing an ASEAN, or a Philippine launch remains slim. However, as with the multitude of spicy cars that aren’t released locally, we still admire it from afar. 

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