The world of hot hatches offers a what’s what of some of the finest pieces of automotive engineering in the world. For cars so small to offer so much performance potential, hot hatches are the Lord’s gift to those who want to satisfy their need for speed without bleeding their pockets dry. These days, the hottest among the hot hatches is the Toyota GR Yaris. This 257-horsepower juiced up critter is arguably one of the best cars Toyota has ever produced. It is, in many ways, a car that was developed to be more than just a hot hatch, but a testament to the performance capabilities of these pocket rockets that compels people to pay premium prices for the best ones.
The Toyota GR Yaris is on its way to becoming one of the best hot hatches in the world — if it isn’t there already — but before we can officially crown it as the best of the lot, it’s going to have to go through said lot, beginning with another hot hatch that punches way above its weight class: the Mini John Cooper Works GP. What better way to size up these two than in a good old-fashioned drag race, presented to all of us by YouTube channel Carwow.
The Toyota GR Yaris is the clinical definition — if there’s such a thing — of “small but terrible.” Despite its size, the GR Yaris packs a 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine that produces 257 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque.
There aren’t that many hot hatchbacks that can compete with what the GR Yaris brings to the table. But the Mini John Cooper Works GP is one of them. It looks bigger than the GR Yaris, but it actually weighs just 2,855 pounds. Like the Yaris, it’s one of the skinny hot hatches in the segment, weighing 181 pounds less than the Hyundai Veloster N, 266 pounds less than the Honda Civic Type-R, and a staggering 518 pounds less than the segment’s resident plump machine, the Volkswagen Golf R.
On the engine side, the JCP GP is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces a naughty 301 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque. The hot hatch is also equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission that sends power to the two front wheels.
A lot of elements are in play here between the Toyota GR Yaris and the Mini John Cooper Works GP. At the very least, it’s setting up to be a very interesting drag race between the two hot hatch monsters.