A ‘Fast and the Furious’ cult legend, Toyota Supra returns 16 years later
GENEVA – It’s fast. It’s furious. And it’s back. About 16 years after it was discontinued, the Toyota Supra sports car zoomed back into the automotive spotlight Tuesday at the Geneva Motor Show.
The Supra, which was featured in the first The Fast and the Furious movie and retains a cult following among sports car aficionados, could be headed for dealerships soon.
“This car clearly signals our intention to bring back to the market one of our most legendary sport models,” said Johan van Zyl, CEO of Toyota Motor Europe. “It’s light, compact and fast.”
Toyota revealed the GR Supra Racing concept for the first time in Geneva. Although concept cars don’t always turn into the real thing, Toyota signaled that this one “shows the future potential for a car that can deliver high performance both on road and track.” That could bode well for fans who clamored for the second coming of the Supra, which traces its heritage back to 1978 when it debuted as a special version of the second-generation Celica.
The Supra later became its own model. Toyota continued making the Supra in a front-engine, rearwheel-drive format until its demise in 2002. At that point, it was Toyota’s most powerful car at dealerships. The Supra legend grew because of Toyota’s racing ventures, including two appearances at Le Mans in the 1990s. Long rumored to be on its way back, the concept unveiled in Geneva is a compact two-door sports car with a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive makeup. A Toyota racing division is responsible for the engineering and design.
Toyota revealed very little about the vehicle’s specifications, except its dimensions: 15 feet long by 6.72 feet wide and 4.04 feet high.