Supra For A New Generation

28 March 2022

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By Paul Gover.

My son Eli, age 12, loves the Toyota Supra.

His circle of friends, who recently discovered computer driving games like Forza, are also converts to the Supra world.

It’s almost like they have all hit automotive puberty, talking about cars all the time and exchanging driving tips and pictures of their favourites, despite the general consensus that younger generations don’t share the motoring passions that were common through the final decades of the 20th century.

Eli and his mates don’t care that the new Supra is really a BMW Z4, or that it doesn’t have the wings-and-things styling of earlier models, they just love the idea of a car that’s great fun to drive.

And that, really, is the key to the Supra and its return to the Toyota catalogue.

The world’s biggest carmaker has already ripped through the hybrid world, and is about to unleash its power in full electrification while pushing development of hydrogen cars, but recognises there is still a place for cars that engage with people who don’t just want a bland-mobile for city and suburban transport.

Toyota has the GR Yaris and will soon have a GR Corolla, as well as the 86 sports car, with the Supra providing the halo.

It’s an old-school sports car with a front engine that turns the rear wheels, and styling that turns heads.

It’s plug-and-play easy to drive, thanks to a sweet eight-speed automatic gearbox and a full sweet of connected infotainment.

But the beating heart of the new-age Supra is a turbocharged in-line BMW six-cylinder engine with 285 sweet kiloWatts and 500 Newton-metres of torque.

The result is a car that can be smooth and quiet on a commute, or brisk and engaging for a fun run.

To address the elephant in the garage, the Supra started life as a BMW. The Z4.

Toyota came along once all the hard work was done to add its styling tweaks and a unique suspension calibration to move it away from BMW’s original. But not by much.

It’s smart thinking because, just as the Toyota GR86 is mostly Subaru stuff under the skin, the world’s biggest carmaker can claim plenty of credit and also hit the ambitions of its buyers.

In the case of the Supra, it means a price-tag of $87,303 that considerably undercuts an equivalent BMW Z4 at $103,200. Of course, BMW has a cheaper model with a 2-litre engine at $72,300 and also has a Z4 convertible in its line-up . . .

Toyota has also tweaked the Supra since it first landed in 2009, adding extra performance and the essential smart phone integration that was originally – like far too many Toyota models at the time – missing.

So the Supra is a top-class sports that that is smooth and fluid in all conditions, with great driving enjoyment. It’s beautifully finished inside, is surprisingly easy on fuel at around 8 litres/100km in a cruise, and can crack along when you feel the need. Even the boot is roomy.