We, as car enthusiasts, are always told that “the suits” are to blame for our problems. They kill off our favorite deeply unprofitable cars, they cut costs at the expense of reliability. It’s a rivalry as old as time — enthusiasts and businesspeople are like oil and water, jocks and nerds, slobs and snobs. One man, however, embodies the Hegelian synthesis to this dialectic: Mr. Akio Toyoda.
Toyoda is the CEO of Toyota, but he’s also a big fan of driving. Particularly, he’s a fan of driving fast: Toyoda has driven endurance races at the Nürbubrgring for the company that bears his name. So when he got his hands on a lightly-modified GR Yaris, Toyoda did what he does best and sent it. Watch here:
The video opens on a race-prepped GR Yaris doing donuts, figure 8s, and generally making a lot of noise and smoke. Then, Toyoda shows up in his near-factory Yaris, and the real fun begins. It’s unclear what modifications have been done to Toyoda’s Yaris, besides the wheels and mud flaps, but the little three-door can really haul around a parking lot.
Toyoda, for his part, is having a blast. Waving an arm out the window to the cameras, spinning that little Yaris like a top. Not all the suits are bad, it seems — some want to use their power at the top to keep building cool cars.
Despite his Gymkhana skills, Toyoda is not likely leave the boardroom for the paddock any time soon. After being declared 2021 World Car Person Of The Year by the World Car Awards jury, he’s more likely to stay the course and keep bringing us fun and interesting cars from Toyota. Like that GR Corolla, maybe?
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