New challenge awaits in GR Cup trek to PE

This weekend's third round of the Toyota GR Cup presents a massive highlight in a season that has delivered unchanged results in all four races so far.

- Charl Bosch

Heading to the coast and the Aldo Scribante circuit outside Gqeberha, the event sees the long-awaited arrival of the facelift GR Yaris fitted with the new eight-speed DAT, or Direct Automatic Transmission.

Replacing the tried-and-tested six-speed manual campaigned in all four seasons so far, the new close-ratio box offers a number of innovations over the three-pedal layout it replaces.

Besides the obvious lack of a clutch pedal, it sports predictive shifting software Toyota says adjusts to the driver's behaviour by selecting gears faster than not only the manual, but also what a human can shift with the paddle shifters in manual mode compared to other conventional torque converter automatic transmissions.