The Supra is back. Kind of. Mostly. Figuring that prior to this the world had very little by way of official material to form any conjecture about the new Toyota Supra. If it weren’t for the various development prototypes running around the Nurburgring, we might have close to zero indication to what the new car might look like or offer, performance-wise.
As the name suggests, the Supra GR Racing Concept is both a concept car and one not made for the road. Given its aero, racing slicks, and cabin entirely bereft of comforts or trim, this is the most accurate materialisation of an FIA-spec endurance machine (or Super GT racer) based on the next Supra. By reverse-extrapolating away all the track-specific changes, the human imagination can just about fashion a rough idea about what the production car will look like. Eventually.
For those eagerly awaiting for the veil to be lifted on the resurrected Toyota sports car, this unveil at the Geneva Motor Show is a mixed blessing. On the bright side, just by looking at this, we definitely have a clearer idea of what the final product will look like, which is better than anything we had the day before.
To take a more cynical view, there’s little about the car (modified for racing, as it is) that we weren’t already expecting to see. Various leaks slowly painted a picture of what the car’s dimensions would be, how much of its design was to be influenced by the FT-1 concept, even a near-enough confirmation of what kind of powertrain would be supplying thrust.
Other than these pictures, Toyota has not revealed any information on any of these points. In fact, nothing was said about the GR Supra Racing Concept at all other than confirming the upcoming production version will indeed be called the Supra. That said, was there anyone who believed anything to the contrary?
Because of this, everything concerning the car’s actual road going specification still remains a mystery, bringing us back to square one. As a refresher, these are some of the more solid of tidbits:
- Like the new Z4 roadster that’s being developed alongside it, the Supra will very likely be powered by a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-6 sourced from BMW. This motor will likely be supplemented by an electric motor to boost performance as well as increase efficiency.
- Power is expected to hover around 250kW while peak torque estimated at 450Nm. 0-100km/h is projected at a very rapid 3.8 seconds. So, about as fast as the original Pagani Zonda. Yikes.
- Both the Supra and BMW Z4 will likely ride on the same platform, sharing an identical wheelbase. The electric motor, which might only be fitted to certain variants, will be housed in between the engine and transmission, which is likely to be a ZF 8-speed automatic. It’s uncertain, though possible, that it will be offered with a manual on the purely petrol model.
It’s unclear how long the wait will be until Toyota will be ready to show off the real thing. Going forward, the Supra faithful will be watching for any movement on the development of the BMW Z4 to gauge how far the Japanese coupe has been coming along side it.
PS - ‘GR’ stands for Gazoo Racing. Yeah, good thing they abbreviated.
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