Chapter 1 — Introduction: Between Speed and the Joy of Driving
The GR Yaris was born as a sports car shaped by Toyota’s experience in rallying.
Then, in 2024, Toyota introduced the updated GR Yaris with the 8-speed GAZOO Racing Direct Automatic Transmission, or GR-DAT.
I own both cars: a Japanese-market 2020 GR Yaris with a 6-speed manual transmission, which I call Car No. 1, and a Japanese-market 2024 GR Yaris with GR-DAT, which I call Car No. 2.
The differences between them go beyond the transmission. Engine output, body structure, chassis tuning, and four-wheel-drive control all evolved between 2020 and 2024.
This article is therefore a comparison of what I have experienced as the same owner and driver repeatedly switching between these two cars.
In Car No. 1, I put the driving sequence together myself, with my hands and feet.
In Car No. 2, I can leave much of the shifting to the car and devote more attention to braking, weight transfer, and the driving line.
After spending time with both, I have come to feel that they deepen my understanding of driving in different ways.
Chapter 2 — Car No. 2, the GR-DAT: Speed from the Updated Chassis and Shift Control
At the beginning of the year, I drove the same winding road on three consecutive days.
Day 1: Car No. 2.
Day 2: Car No. 2 again.
Day 3: Car No. 1.
The road was the same and the driver was the same, yet changing the car changed where my attention went.
My first impression of Car No. 2 was simple:
It felt overwhelmingly fast.
In Japanese-market specification, the 2024 GR Yaris produces 304 PS and 400 N·m, compared with 272 PS and 370 N·m in the 2020 car. The updated model also received revisions to body rigidity and the chassis.
Then there is GR-DAT.
GR-DAT uses accelerator input, braking input, and vehicle behavior to anticipate the gear the car is likely to need and execute shifts quickly.
Through a series of corners, it makes it easy to stay in an appropriate gear. When the car moves back onto the throttle, acceleration flows with very little interruption.
Even a driver of my modest skill level can carry a surprising amount of speed in it.
What interested me most, however, was what became visible within that speed.
Once clutch operation, gear-lever movement, and much of the rev-matching work recede into the background, I have more attention available for other questions.
How long am I carrying the brake?
Where am I beginning to steer?
When am I starting to open the throttle?
I begin to notice the corner where I used too much steering angle.
The place where I released the brake too late.
The point where I might have rotated the car slightly earlier.
By moving one major part of the driving task—the gear change—to the car, GR-DAT makes the remaining parts of my own driving easier for me to see.
Chapter 3 — Car No. 1, the 6MT: The Pleasure of Building the Whole Sequence
In Car No. 1, I connect the clutch, gearshift, brakes, steering, and accelerator myself.
The 2020 6-speed manual is also equipped with iMT, which can assist with engine-speed matching during shifts.
What I enjoy in the manual, though, is the process of putting the entire sequence together myself, including heel-and-toe downshifts.
I brake.
I depress the clutch.
I select the gear.
I bring the engine toward the speed required by the lower gear.
Then I reconnect the clutch.
When the sequence comes together cleanly, the car can move straight from braking into cornering without an unnecessary disturbance in its attitude.
I load the front tires under braking, begin steering, let the car rotate, and then connect the corner to acceleration.
When the shift becomes a natural part of that entire sequence, there is a moment when the driver and the car seem to operate as one system.
Today, I did it a little more smoothly than yesterday.
A technique that once demanded most of my attention now leaves me a little more mental room.
Those small changes are part of what makes Car No. 1 rewarding to drive.
For me, the manual GR Yaris is also a training device—one that continually gives me another operation to refine.
Chapter 4 — Comparing My 2020 6MT and 2024 GR-DAT
First, these are the basic differences between the two Japanese-market cars I own.
| Item | 2020 6MT — Car No. 1 | 2024 GR-DAT — Car No. 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum output | 272 PS | 304 PS |
| Maximum torque | 370 N·m | 400 N·m |
| Approx. curb weight | 1,280 kg | 1,300 kg |
| Transmission | 6-speed manual with iMT | 8-speed GR-DAT |
| Generation | 2020 original model | 2024 updated model |
The differences I feel from behind the wheel can be summarized this way.
| Item | 2020 6MT — Car No. 1 | 2024 GR-DAT — Car No. 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Shifting | I operate the clutch and gear lever myself | Shifting can largely be left to the car |
| Power delivery | The clutch interrupts drive during a shift | The drop in drive during shifts is hard to feel |
| Driver attention | Shifting must be integrated into the entire sequence | More attention can go to braking, cornering, and line choice |
| Acceleration feel | Strong sense of connection between my actions and the drivetrain | Fast shifts make acceleration easy to connect |
| Everyday driving | Clutch operation is always part of the workload | Less workload in traffic and at low speed |
| What I learn from it | Refining the act of operating the car | More room to observe overall vehicle behavior |
The difference, then, is larger than simply having three pedals instead of two.
The two cars change where I spend my attention.
In Car No. 1, the challenge is to connect all of the operations—including the gear change—into one smooth sequence.
In Car No. 2, part of that work moves to the machine, leaving more room for me to observe what the car itself is doing.
Chapter 5 — What I Learned by Moving Back and Forth Between the Two Cars
After two days in Car No. 2, I returned to Car No. 1 on the third day.
Something in my driving felt slightly different.
In the GR-DAT car, I had been able to pay closer attention to the movement of weight from corner entry, through rotation, and into corner exit.
Now, back in the manual, I found myself trying to reproduce that same flow while carrying out the additional operations required by the 6MT.
Instead of thinking mainly about the clutch or gear lever, I was trying to place the shift inside the movement of the whole car.
The behavior I had observed in Car No. 2 had become a reference point for driving Car No. 1.
For me, Car No. 2 became a kind of mirror for my driving.
I observe the movement of the car in the GR-DAT.
Then I return to the 6MT and try to construct that movement through my own hands and feet.
Then I go back to the GR-DAT again.
Moving between the two has expanded the range of things I think about while driving.
For me, in retirement, it has also become a chance to study driving again.
Chapter 6 — Conclusion: A Second Stage in the Way I Enjoy Driving
Owning these two cars has gradually changed the way I enjoy driving.
For many years, a large part of my attention went toward performing the operations well.
Now I am equally fascinated by watching how the car transfers weight, rotates, and transitions back into acceleration.
If the moment when I first learned to engage a clutch and make a car move was the first stage of my life with driving, perhaps this is the second.
As the machine has become capable of taking over some of the work, I have gained more attention for parts of vehicle behavior that I once had less room to observe.
Then I take what I learned there and bring it back to the manual.
Understanding speed changes the way I see technique.
Refining technique changes the way I understand speed.
Today, the two sister cars sit side by side in my garage, their narrow eyes facing forward.
Which one should I drive today?
Even the time spent deciding has become part of this lifelong pastime of driving.
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