One of the inherent pleasures of this job is the occasion when something special comes along – and not necessarily something that costs millions of shekels – but which fires the collective imagination of your ordinary motorist anyway.

Such cars are the automotive folk-heroes of this world and they are not, by both design and intent, the sparkly megabuck superhero types made by such as Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Pagani, Lamborghini, McLaren, or Bugatti.

No, such cars are made by everyday automotive manufacturers such as Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, Subaru, Alfa Romeo, Nissan, Fiat, Peugeot and Mitsubishi. 

Cars from each and every one of the aforementioned have struck a chord with everyman/woman simply by being fast or gorgeous or wicked or affordable or even mechanically accessible to your average backyard garagista warrior.

Generations of rally-bred Cosworth Fords, Mitsubishi Evos, Subaru WRCs, or simple hot hatches from Honda, Alfa, VW, Peugeot or Fiat, have bred enthusiasts like few supercars ever could and sparked lifelong petrolheadedness among those who could only ever dream of driving something from Maranello, Gaydon, Sant ‘Agata or Stuttgart.

Certainly for many people even such as a Sierra Cosworth was an aspirational thing, but it offered supercar performance for less money than a Beirut duplex. And when it came out, the excitement caused among the masses was quite intense.

Indeed, I remember when the very first one arrived in the driveway chez Colley that the queue of people at the front door wanting a look or a spin was longer than that at a new Krispy Kreme franchise. Two gardai even called; they were not unduly concerned about the security of the car – they wanted a spin too.

Cars which caused such a furore are few and far between and, in my memory, only such as the Cossie, the Lancia Delta Integrale Evo II, the Mitsubishi Evo X and the Audi R8 stirred up true passionate public fervour. This week’s tester has to be added to that list and it is the Toyota GR Yaris.

I won’t say I was besieged – where I live that only happens in the summer – but I certainly had an inordinate level of interest in this beast, which is a credit to two things: a) the wild look of it; and, b) a widespread petrolhead acceptance that this is something the like of which we only see once in a generation.

Only launched last November, the GR Yaris is not quite a rally homologation special (one of a small number of road-going cars used to qualify a model for competition) and nor is it a slightly lesser version of the Yaris that Gazoo Racing (Toyota’s motor sport arm) use in the World Rally Championship.

But, if Toyota were not competing in the WRC, then this car would never have happened. When the Japanese giant re-entered top-flight rallying back in 2015, it was always envisaged that a sports car inspired by the company’s efforts would be part of the deal. And here it is.

From the threads of its Dunlop 225/40R18 SP Sport MAXX 050s to the tip of the carbon fibre roof, this thing is not only sensational to look at – all flared arches, spoilers, diffusers – but it is a truly shattering driving experience.

It certainly does not look like a normal Yaris and indeed, the only things that survive from the regular car are the front and rear lights, the door mirrors and the shark-fin antenna. 

Aside from the carbon roof, the three doors are aluminium and so is the hood – all in line with the concept that this car should be an ideal combination of a rigid but lightweight construction, an agile chassis and a powerful engine.

So, under the aluminium hood there is a brand new three-cylinder 1.6 litre turbocharged petrol engine, which might sound like something you’d get in a Suzuki Swift. It’s not.

This is the most powerful three-cylinder engine ever built, while also being the smallest and lightest 1.6 turbo out there. Output is – deep breath – 259 bhp at 6,500 rpm and there’s 340 Nm of torque on hand between 3,000 and 4,600 rpm. Top speed is limited to 230 kph and the 0-100 kph is achieved in just 5.5 seconds.

All that power is fed onto the road via a six-speed manual ‘box (no fancy-dan paddle shifters here) and a unique four wheel drive arrangement which was specifically designed for this car and is the first such bespoke system Toyota has designed for over 20 years.

I’m no mathematician, but even in my book a lightweight chassis which is stiffer than Superman’s underpants, an engine with more punch than Anthony Joshua and a 4WD system with more grip than the Moonies, adds up to something truly special.

On paper, when the details of the car were first revealed, it looked like it was going to be astounding. In reality, it is much more than that – it’s stupefying.

Around town you can pootle around without bother, but when you get out into the B-Road territory this thing was made for, the action comes thick and fast – bloody fast. And you do not have to have it winging the red line all the time to get your adrenaline fix.

Spin it up to 3,000 rpm when the maximum torque kicks in and you’re only really tickling it. See the revs climb beyond 5,000 and on towards the red line and you’re shifting gears quicker than you thought possible as you try to keep up with it all. At 5,500 rpm in any gear and you’re bolting along at an alarming rate.

But then you realise that – thanks to the 4WD system – the likelihood of you hitting that large oak tree hurtling towards you at an unseemly speed is slim. This thing has so much grip it seems completely at one with the road surface. The handling is sharp and racy and the way this thing carries itself down wet and winding roads is genuinely remarkable.

Theoretically you can send 100% of the power to either axle, but Toyota has left you the choice of three settings which wary that – Normal gives you a 60:40 ratio, while it is 70:30 in Sport and 50:50 in Track. 

You would genuinely need closed roads to explore the capability of the settings on offer, but unless you’re at the WRC end of the driving ability scale, you are not going to get to the bottom of this thing. It is that good.

It is possible to get the GR Yaris to break traction, but you would want to be very brave or rather foolhardy to try – at least on public roads. This thing is so sure-footed and planted you don’t need to get your inner hooligan out. Oh, and the steering is fast and accurate and the braking power astonishing; in fact, it’s worth noting that the rear discs are bigger than on the GR Supra. I mean, really.

You could quibble about the Toyota-ness of the interior – all dark plastics and uninspiring detail like the touchscreen that looks like it fell from the skies, but in the bigger picture of this diminutive beast, all that is irrelevant. You could also quibble at the price, but to do so would be a failure to recognise the depth of talent here.

These things are immaterial because this is already a nailed-on classic and a car for the ages. It is a car whose reputation will only gather momentum as time tries to catch up with it and that is why it is already a hero of the petrolheaded – me included.