THERE are two distinct and very different versions of the Toyota Yaris GR that areboth sporting in appeal.

The GR name comes from the company's rally and racing arm Gazoo Racing, which gives you an idea of how much more focused these cars are.

The lower order car, called Yaris GR Sport, comes with a choice of two petrol electric hybrid power outputs and firmer sporting suspension than the standard cars.

And while they have 16-inch wheels, it comes as standard with 18-inch ones and very low profile tyres.

This setup makes lower speed driving in town quite an unsettled experience, but it does smooth out as speed rises.

Both drive units are 1.5 petrol-electrics - with either 114bhp or with a tweaked electric motor at 130.

That's enough to give zero to 60 miles an hour acceleration of 9.4 or 8.9 seconds, and economy of around 55 miles per gallon.

And if the battery is charged - which is done on the go not from being plugged in - it will do a few local journeys on electric power alone.

Power is to the front wheels through a standard continuously variable automatic gearbox and the combination works very well.

All GR Sport models come with five doors for practicality, and use the same bodyshell as all the other models in the range.

The other GR is the hot hatch GR Yaris - note the difference in the name - and this is a completely different beast that shares hardly anything with the lower order cars.

Built to allow homologation of Toyota's world championship rally cars, it delivers a stonking 257bhp from a 1.6-litre turbo and this drives all four wheels through a sweet changing six speed gearbox.

For something about the same size as a Fiesta, that's an awful lot of extra kit but it really delivers the goods, with a supercar zero to 60 miles an hour time of just 5.3 seconds and a limited top speed of 143 miles an hour.

There is a huge amount of traction and grip - even on wet roads covered with leaves. This car sticks to the tarmac like a limpet.

There are three drive modes selectable by the driver and these choose how much drive is sent to the front and rear axles. Normal is 60 per cent to the front 40 to the rear.

The ride is firm - as you would expect - but the car has so much agility and chassis response that no owner would ever complain.

Standard equipment in the GR Sport includes an alarm, all electric windows, good seat adjustment, heated mirrors and loads of airbags that even include a curtain bag between the front seat occupants to stop them hurting each other.

Toyota claims the Yaris is one of the safest superminis on the market, with blindspot monitoring, and autonomous emergency braking that can detect pedestrians between six and 50 miles an hour,

Pay about £16,000 for a '21 21-reg GR Sport five door, or £25,750 for a '22 22-reg GR Yaris AWD three door.