TOYOTA SOARER
ALTHOUGH TOYOTA NEVER SOLD IT HERE THE SOARER GAINED A STRONG FOLLOWING
Australia never saw the Toyota Soarer as an official model. However the name certainly came to notice during the 1990s as boat-loads of an all-new version began arriving.
Early Soarers were Cressida-sized with 2.0 or 3.0-litre turbo engines. They weren’t especially fast or elegant but the badge was destined for better things.
The UZZ and JZZ cars announced to Japan and the USA in 1991 were totally new and vastly more impressive than the previous model. They still had two doors but were appreciably longer and wider with styling that had far greater appeal to an international market.
Most used the 32-valve Lexus 4.0-litre V8 which delivered a useful but not astounding 192kW. From 1993 there was also a 3.0-litre, six-cylinder, non-turbo SC300 model.
Accompanying the V8 at introduction in 1991 was a twin-turbo Soarer designated JZZ30. It used a 2.5-litre. in-line six, produced 208kW and was a very unlikely performance car. Most Soarers that came here had Toyota’s excellent four-speed automatic transmission, however a few twin turbo cars were five-speed manual. These run a standing 400 metres in around a second less than the auto and sell for 20-30 percent more.
Three levels of trim were available in Japan however the lower-spec GT and more luxurious Limited are the ones commonly seen in Australia.
GT-spec cars, including all of the twin-turbos, have velour-trimmed seats with power adjustment, full electrics, a dash display screen and climate-control air-conditioning.
Step up to a UZZ31 Limited V8 and the dash sprouts slivers of timber veneer, the seats are trimmed in quality leather and the steering wheel covering is a two-tone blend of leather and fake timber. A UZZ32 model with complex Active Air-Bag suspension was sold in Japan but rarely seen here.
Soarers were promoted as a 2+2, however with a wheelbase only 300mm shorter than the big LS400 Lexus sedan’s, the back seat is palatial and available legroom relatively generous. Certainly there is more than in a similarly-sized Jaguar XJs or BMW 6 Series.
The SC400 V8 wasn’t seen here or elsewhere as a performance car but once its 1640kg is on the move, the rate of acceleration increases impressively. Standing 400 metre times clocked by North American testers averaged 16.5 seconds, however the 2.5TT auto murders that number with a 15.06.
Every Japanese import yard during the late 1990s had a row or two of recently-arrived Soarers. Since then the numbers of available cars have dwindled due to age and mechanical gremlins but good cars still aren’t impossible to find.
The money being sought and paid for V8s is still illogically low and buyers should budget $10,000 for an excellent Limited. Turbos are dearer but automatics rarely exceed $15,000. If you do stumble upon a manual TT in sound condition at less than $20,000 don’t think twice because it very likely won’t be that cheap in 12 month’s time.