SUPRA HITS TOWN

accommodate all kinds of drivers and will have a special focus on cornering and driver excitement.

“For Supra I haven’t thought about any fuel consumption, everything is just a sports car, the feeling is focused on excitement. All stages of turning there is a neutrality, you can feel with this car — there is nothing to compare,” he says.

Tada says that the Supra is a much more serious sports car than the brand’s other coupe, the 86, citing the car’s 50-50 weight distribution, track focus and a wheelbase that is shorter than the 86’s. But affordability is one key element that all Toyota sports cars must have.

It has been a long road getting the Supra to the later stages of production. Tada says that working with BMW presented more challenges than with Subaru, its partner on the 86 program.

“The direction of ideas, the cars are different, and because we are using BMW parts and then you have to develop the Toyota-taste car using the BMW parts. So that was the first stage that we found difficult. It took one and a half years to agree to that point,” says Tada.

Tada for the moment is still focusing on Supra rather than the company’s next sports car saying that “every year you have to update or customers will leave.”

Tada mooted that there would be special editions further down the line.

The production version of the Supra is due to be revealed at the 2019 Detroit motor show in January.