Toyota GR Supra
Toyota’s most famous sports car returns from a 16-year hiatus. The fifth-generation Supra was developed in partnership with BMW and shares more than just its platform with the Z4. The question is: exactly how German is it?
Remember the previous supra: the star of the first fast and furious movie and the wheels of choice for Gran turismo fans? Well, the iconic Japanese sports car is back – which is exciting news for tuners and drifters.
The Supra’s bloodline can be traced back to another movie star – the gorgeous 2000 GT of the 1960s, which is Toyota’s most beautiful car. With a long, sweeping bonnet, rear-biased cabin, in-line six-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive layout, the 2000 GT’S genes have survived five generations of the Supra.
In 1967, when James Bond was driving it in
You Only Live Twice, the producers had to cut away the roof, due to Sean Connery’s abnormal size. It was the only 2000 GT convertible ever made.
The newest version of the Supra isn’t available topless either. If you want that, you have to opt for its Bavarian twin brother, the fabric-roofed BMW Z4. If you’re looking for a Z4 coupé, you have to go for the Supra. Which brings us to the Germanjapanese collaboration that was seven years in the making. The companies shared a mutual respect. The CEO of Toyota sometimes builds amazing cars, like the Lexus LFA and the Toyota GT86. He loves self-driving in his race suit on Nürburgring, where he experienced the dynamic products from Bavaria firsthand. And that’s where he met the guys responsible for them. The humble CEO was even allowed to drive some pre-production BMWS on the test track in Munich.
It was his passion for Freude am Fahren (driving pleasure) that lead to the collaboration between Toyota and BMW – and the new Z4. Without Japan, BMW probably wouldn’t have kept the niche product Z4 in its model lineup.
Both the Z4 and Supra are neither produced in Japan nor Bavaria; but in Austria, at the Magna Plant of Mercedes G fame.
While it shares most of its components with BMW’S Z4 – like its platform, running gear, M40i engine, ZF eightspeed gearbox and large parts of its interior – it couldn’t be further from the Z4 in terms of its design. Toyota succeeded in continuing the look and feel of the predecessor MK IV: long hood, two doors, compact rear-end and inline six-cylinder with rear-wheel drive.
I drove hot laps at the Aldo Scribante race track in Port Elizabeth, after a chauffeured drive with Dakar winner and Toyota works driver
Giniel de Villiers. There were only two driving modes to choose from: normal and sport. The engine grew louder, the car tighter. The vehicle performed surprisingly well on the track.
The eight-speed auto was fine tuned for the Supra and shifts smoothly, at exactly the right time. A 50/50 weight balance and a low centre of gravity, combined with super-direct steering, makes for some spirited driving. And the active rear differential allows spectacular, but easy to control, sideways action. Drift fans needn’t worry: the ESP can be turned off completely.
On a sunny day in the Alps, I would opt for the topless Z4. But on a race track, any race track, it would definitely have to be the new Supra.