New era of racing cars

TY7-GR Toyota Yaris 7 speed Sequential Gearbox

          Nowadays, few expected that a car could appear on the market that would come close to the iconic Mitsubishi Evo or Subaru STI. But in 2020, the TOYOTA GR Yaris came on the market. This car, which was created under the leadership of GAZOO RACING, greatly exceeded its expectations. It is designed for normal roads, with the intention of easily converting it into a rally special. The potential of the car is huge and it has not escaped the attention of many interested parties.

          This is where the idea arose at X Shift Gearboxes to develop and manufacture a sequential gearbox for this car. Due to the unceasing interest and recommendations from our reliable and long-term partner Esko Reiners ( ERM ) from Finland, we at X Shift Gearboxes decided to transform our long-term experience in the development and production of gearboxes into another interesting product. Thus, in April 2020, the sequential gearbox project for the Toyota GR Yaris car began to emerge. Due to the popularity of the car, a gearbox was created that has 5, 6 or 7 gears.

          The goal was to bring to market the best possible product that would combine the excellent elements from our previous gearboxes (for Mitsubishi, Subaru, Porsche and beyond). At the same time, supplement it with a unique and newly developed gearing concept that brings many advantages and countless other minor or major improvements that achieve a top result. Since the car was built in the GAZOO RACING factory, which guarantees high-level parts, we also wanted to provide the option of using stock parts. This step will significantly reduce the price of conversion to a racing special. Of course, the transmission is designed to be compatible with both stock and racing parts such as the clutch, clutch bearing, drive shafts, necessary sensors and more. X Shift Gearboxes collaborated during the development with people from Finland and the Czech Republic, who deal with the conversion of these cars into racing specials, to whom we hereby thank.

          With the joint cooperation of the X Shift Gearboxes team and with the help of state-of-the-art computer programs, the construction and development work, despite all major or minor challenges, managed to be completed at the beginning of August. Subsequently, the next phase began with the production of the gearbox prototype. The main difference between the prototype and the planned series production is the milled gearbox housings. This variant had to be chosen for possible future modifications to the prototype and shorter production time.

Motorsport World Expo in Cologne

           Thanks to the great work commitment of all employees, it was possible to manufacture and assemble the first prototype of the sequential gearbox for the Toyota GR Yaris by the end of September. Subsequently, the gearbox was tested in various conditions, both here and in Finland. Meanwhile, X Shift Gearboxes began preparing for the gearbox launch at the Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne on November 10, 2021, where they presented a world-first 5/6/7-speed sequential gearbox for the Toyota GR Yaris. This unique product attracted huge interest and was labeled as the "jewel of the exhibition".

TY7-GR Toyota Yaris

          Excited and encouraged by the huge interest and success of the sequential gearbox for the GR Yaris, the X Shift Gearboxes team quickly threw themselves into the launch and tuning of the zero series gearbox, which mainly consisted of changing the gearbox manufacturing technology. The gearbox is offered in two variants with a milled and cast housing. Due to the complexity of the packaging, it was costly in terms of time and money to debug the zero series of castings. The castings are made from a special aircraft-grade aluminum alloy, while the strength is only slightly lower compared to milled casings, but absolutely sufficient, and at the same time the cast casing is lighter.

          At the end of 2021, a collaboration with the Italian company T-racing began to take shape, which was very interested in a sequential gearbox from X Shift Gearboxes for the Toyota GR Yaris for their GR Yaris Rally Cup, which is under the banner of GAZOO RACING. The first piece was delivered in December. It didn't take long and at the beginning of February, the sequential gearbox for the GR Yaris from X Shift Gearboxes was the only one homologated for the Italian GR Yaris Rally Cup. With maximum effort, X Shift Gearboxes delivered 20 more gearboxes for the aforementioned GR Yaris Rally Cup by the end of April. Sequential gearboxes from X Shift Gearboxes handled without problems all 6 events that were scheduled in the Italian GR Yaris Rally Cup for 2022. This year the Cup continues with the same gearboxes and enjoys great interest and popularity among drivers and fans.

         During 2022, X Shift Gearboxes supplied sequential gearboxes for a variety of purposes. Whether it was 5-level, 6-level or 7-level gearboxes. The sequential 7-speed gearbox from X Shift Gearboxes is installed in the most powerful Toyota GR Yaris car so far, which was created in the workshop of Brillsteel motorsport, under the hood hides an engine with a power of 600 HP and a torque of 800 Nm.

          There is enormous interest in Toyota GR Yaris cars and sequential gearboxes from X Shift Gearboxes for this car worldwide. These gearboxes appear in various parts of the world and in various racing specials designed for rally, street, even drag and hill racing.

         For this reason, X Shift Gearboxes offers countless accessories for the GR Yaris. Starting with the display and standard or carbon shifter, fully compatible in the position of the original shifter. Thanks to the variant with bowden, it is not necessary to make any interventions in the vehicle body, it is only a Plug and Play system. Of course, a variant with a gear stick is also available. In cooperation with the Slovenian company MME Motorsport, it offers the most modern shifting with pneumatic paddles. The X Shift Gearboxes portfolio also includes a special racing gear holder. It also offers many variants of permanent transfers, thanks to which it can meet the requirements of every customer. The gearbox is equipped with an oil pump as standard. At the same time, X Shift has developed a method of joint lubrication of the transmission case and the front transfer, which has a very positive effect on the life of the front transfer on the Toyota GR Yaris. This variant is pre-prepared for all sequential gearboxes for the GR Yaris from X Shift Gearboxes and can be completed at any time.

         Due to the popularity of Toyota GR Yaris cars and their low conversion costs for rally specials, the owner of the company X Shift Gearboxes, Mr. František Macho, came up with the idea of organizing a cup for GR Yaris cars in the Czech Republic. Thus, at the turn of 2022 and 2023, the necessary documents for the Toyota Yaris Cup Czech began to form.

         Thanks to the good cooperation between X Shift Gearboxes, domestic competitors, Toyota Czech Republic and the Autoklub České Republiky, the Toyota Yaris Cup Czech (TYCC) was established in March as part of the Championship of the Czech Republic.

          This cup is still in its infancy, but it is gradually gaining favor and popularity. For 2023, 8 events are planned as part of the TYCC, in the near future there will be the Bohemia Rally. In the near future, X Shift Gearboxes wants to show off more innovations from its workshop and is looking forward to them being as successful as the sequential gearbox for the GR Yaris.