Words: Andrew Sluys
Published 20 August 2026
Earlier this year, Toyota unveiled a vertically mounted handbrake for the GR Yaris, which arrived alongside a minor model update.
While it looks like a hydraulic handbrake, found in motorsport-oriented vehicles such as rally and drift cars, it’s not as complicated.
It just changes the mounting point and actuation of the manual handbrake, or parking brake, so it functions in a more motorsport-friendly way.
Like the regular handbrake in the GR Yaris, a sensor tells the car’s computer when it has been pulled, which de-couples the rear axle.
It not only brings the handbrake closer to the steering wheel, but the front-to-back actuation is far easier to use at speed, compared to a traditional handbrake.
At launch, this feature was only offered on select GR Yaris models in Japan, but it has since been made available to other markets.
And whilst Toyota New Zealand doesn’t offer the vertical handbrake as standard, it is something you can get if you ask nicely.
“At the moment, we don’t have a plan to put the vertical handbrake into the cars as standard, because New Zealand customers haven’t been demanding it,” said Sven Tulicic, Toyota New Zealand’s Product Planning Manager.
“We are actually going to offer the handbrake as a part.
“We are ordering a kit to make up a car and be able to demonstrate to the customers at the track events.
“And then if there’s a real desire for it, if the volume is high enough, and it deems it smart or logical for us to actually add a specification to a standard car, that could become the new handbrake for the GR Yaris.”
Tulicic added that because it doesn’t change the way the mechanical handbrake functions, there are no legality issues in regards to a Warrant of Fitness they would need to navigate.
