It's as if your maiden aunt had suddenly decided to become a lap dancer. First Toyota brings out its new small car, the sensible and practical Yaris, and then along comes this quite different variation in the form of the T Sport. With its deep front airdam and fancy alloys, it looks playfully fierce, like a kitten pretending to be a tiger. Drive it for a mile and you can't help smiling even though the suspension is trying to shake your vertebrae apart.We've already seen how much Ian Scott Watson, the Yaris's number one fan in the UK, likes the T Sport. The CARkeys opinion is very similar. This car is completely bonkers in a loveable sort of way - not unlike the old Alfa Romeo 145 Cloverleaf, which was so silly you couldn't help being charmed by it.Its 1.5-litre engine, though certainly effective with the VVT-i variable valve timing technology, isn't actually all that powerful. But the very close-ratio five-speed gearbox means you can keep it singing at high revs as long as you want to (and even a lot longer than you want to in motorway driving, which can be a bit of a chore for that reason).If you regularly drive long distances, this perhaps isn't the car for you. But if you live in an area full of excellent driving roads without too many potholes and have no reason to stray far from home, the T Sport has a definite appeal. It responds crisply to steering and throttle commands, and there's enough grunt to balance the handling without any suggestion that the car is overpowered.As with any other Yaris, there's also a surprising amount of front-seat room for a car of this size. The periscope-like dash display is also retained, though in this case when you look into the box in the centre of the dash you see analogue dials rather than the digital ones of lesser models. And a good thing too, say I. I've never got the hang of digital mph and rpm readouts, and they make far less sense than the good old system of a needle swinging round to point at numbers in a performance-oriented car like this one.The T Sport doesn't quite cut it as a hot hatch, but for those of us find warm hatches more satisfying to live with, this is one of the best.Second opinion: Great fun, especially on dodge-about roads, because those high revs on a motorway can indeed get rather wearing. Handles with great assurance, although it does prefer smooth surfaces, because the lowered suspension and low-profile tyres were obviously specified by people who didn't realise that so many British roads are poorly maintained. I like the sporty interior trim and the ingenious stowage spaces, and the T Sport is well specified in comparison with rival superminis. But the instrument cluster looks rather casually designed, with an extra panel stuck on, apparently at the last minute, to take the (bar graph) fuel gauge and trip display. Splendid little engine, but how is it that even in the T Sport Toyota can't provide a decent gearchange? Ross Finlay. Engine 1497cc, 4 cylinders Power 105bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 40.7mpg / 164g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.0 seconds Top speed 118mph Price £11,995 Release date 15/05/2010
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