The Toyota Supra has been rumoured for a glorious return for years and years now, with echoes of new developments on that front rare but while very enticing, they’re quick to fade away.
But some new evidence has turned up courtesy of enthusiast forum Supra MKV that shows a filing with the European Union Intellectual Property Office by Toyota, trademarking the name ‘Supra’.
If true, that sounds like a real clincher, sealing the doubt and silencing the naysayers. But why file the trademark within the EU? Perhaps it’s because that’s where a significant portion of the next Supra’s development might take place, or because Toyota plans to sell the bulk of them there when released. More specifically, it could be because of German automaker BMW.
It’s public knowledge that BMW and Toyota are collaborating on multiple fronts, one of them being to co-develop a sports coupe and roadster. On the German end, that could result in a successor to the second-generation Z4, and on the Japanese bit, that mixture could curdle into a new Supra.
For those patiently waiting, there have been the occasional morale-boosting signs that the darling Supra will indeed make a comeback and hasn’t fall to the wayside in Toyota’s many priorities. Such as the FT-HS hybrid sports car concept of 2007 or, more recently, the stunningly curvaceous FT-1 concept of 2014.
The notion of a Toyota Supra with styling lifted from the FT-1, powered by a high-revving turbocharged BMW straight-six but augmented by Toyota’s hybrid technology to deliver more power, torque-fill, additional fuel economy, and fewer exhaust emissions is a very appealing thought to entertain.
That said, we probably won’t be hearing much more of the Supra save for a few scraps of information at least until its purported 2018 launch date nears closer.
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