What lies beneath…

Racing Concept gives more than a taste of what the first Supra in 16 years will look like

It’s not the final production version of Toyota’s long- awaited new Supra – it wa s the wing that gave it away, wa sn’t it? – but the Ga zoo Racing Supra Racing Concept is an incredibly close representation of the fif th- generation Supra scheduled for launch in 2019.

It shares much of its underpinning s with BMW’S new Z4, which debuts at the end of the year, but Toyota ha s taken the decision to spend a little longer honing its two - seater coupe af ter company boss Akio Toyoda felt it wa sn’t focused enough. It wa s this decision that led to the car’s final development being handed over to the firm’s motorspor t division – Ga zoo Racing. The first new Supra for 16 years will also be badged a Ga zoo Supra.

With the final development work now the responsibility of the team that ha s given us the brilliant Yaris GRMN, the new sub - 1500k g Supra will be powered by a 335bhp, 332lb f t six- cylinder engine capable of a sub - 4 second 0- 60mph time. And while the Supra Racing Concept features all the trappings of motorspor t ( carbon and composite body panels, pla stic side and rear windows and centre- lock alloy wheels), the production car will be constructed from more conventional materials such a s aluminium. While Ga zoo may of fer a small range of upgrades, it’s expected that Toyota will leave it to the af termarket to provide the bulk of these.

The new Supra is one of a series of cars that will see Toyota return to of fering a por tfolio of spor ts and per formance models. To follow will be an updated GT86, a s well a s the return of the MR2 roadster, expected to be a more compact rival to Ma zda’s MX- 5 and scheduled to be revealed in 2020.