Are People Forgetting What The Supra Was? #blogpost
With the eventual release of the next generation Supra coming closer and closer, you read it more often than once that people think what the Mk.IV was and what the Mk.V must be.
With the eventual release of the next generation Supra coming closer and closer, you read it more often than once that people think what the Mk.IV was and what the Mk.V must be. Mostly these are people who weren’t even born when the production of the Mk.IV ended and will never be able to buy the Mk.V anyways, but that’s beside the point.
In the post I’m going to refer mainly to the Mk.IV supra since that’s what people associate with it. I’m aware there are more than just that one.
You often see two claims made about the Supra, or what the Supra should be et cetera.
1 - The price
2 - The character
I’m going to quickly make a point about each of the three.
The Price
Apparently people believe that the Supra used to be an affordable sports car for everybody. Oh, how wrong. The name literally means superior, why would one expect it to be a cheap car for the masses? It was the exact opposite.
The Supra Mk.IV had an MSRP only marginally lower than that of a Porsche 993 Coupé in 1993; that’s over €80,000 adjusted to today’s inflation. Eighty Tousand. And that’s not even the GTE version but the naturally aspirated GE version. The current 991 Coupé has a base price of over €90,000. It would be anything but a surprise if the Supra cracked the €100,000 mark. Well, assuming they’re going to put into the same market segment as the Mk.IV was.
The point is that the Supra never has been a model to rival the Nissan Silvia or similar cars. The name literally implied that the car’s opponents were the higher models, and the price was nothing short of that.
The Character
Alongside with the delusion of being affordable often comes the belief that the Supra used to be a back to the roots, no BS sports car. It wasn’t. When the Supra Mk.IV was released, is was nothing but a computer on wheels. It had tech everywhere. A highly modern traction control came standard and so did automatic aircon, the whole chassis was mostly an aluminium construction. The list of the tech gimmicks and the equipment is endless. The Supra was far away from being a spartan performance car with a classic chassis setup and a classic drivetrain. The Supra never was a car that had to keep some kind of legacy alive.
Speaking of the drivetrain… the JZ engine is not what a Supra makes a Supra. The only reason as to why the Supra Mk.III and Mk.IV had a 1JZ / 2JZ respectively was because it was a powerful performance engine for its day. It has nothing to do with character or with keeping the legacy of the predecessor alive, it was solely a decision from the technological point of view. You don’t see many Corvette C7s with a 350 iron small block and Cross-Fire injection under the bonnet anymore, do you? And for that exact reason, the Mk.IV Supra should, under no circumstances, have a JZ engine. A CAST IRON BLOCK IN 2017? WHERE DO I LIVE. That’s plain ridiculous. No modern car that has even the slightest demand of performance should have a cast iron block under the bonnet, let alone if it rivals the 911 and the Corvette.
So that’s pretty much it. I deliberately pixeled the names. The comments were taken from several CT staff posts announcing news about the supposed next generation Supra. If you happen to be one of the people who claimed similar things… congratulations, you are reason I’m triggered now and the reason my blood pressure rises.
Please share your opinion.
Comments
Supras are nice but def overpriced now and overated. They arent as fast as people make them out to be. Most are abused and high miles so its not worth it price per performance anymore. My favorite part was the looks of the car. Toyota has been making some real ugly cars the last 15 years so i doubt the next supra will look good. The new gt86 face is gross.
Well at least the Kouki ZC6 looks slightly better.
Under 20k for a NA model here in NZ, not bad for a once expensive GT car. Power of depreciation.
Preach!
I was thinking the exact same thing. I think it also applies to the old nsx vs the new nsx
I think the NSX still has its character, just with electric motors giving a bit extra oomph
AnikateGanju
Thank you for putting this out there. People have to realize that cars aren’t build to stay stuck in the past, as it’ll only put the companies and cars under. And in this day and age, every respectable sports car relies on technology to make them safe, as well as faster. The JDM all stars ESPECIALLY were not cheap or basic in any sense. If they can’t adjust their mindsets to that, they’ve either got to actually DRIVE these cars (if they’re even of age and licensed to drive) or just get out of the past.
your pricing facts are complete bullshit with no research but it is a relatively good article
i dont know lets go look at the american msrp and then adjust it for inflation
then go convert it euros
Turbo models:
Low price(‘97): a smidge above 56k euros, still quite a lot.
High price(‘96): 71k euro
While yes, the prices are ass-pulls, the Supra was still pretty damn expensive.
If you want some screenshots of my evidence, I’ll put them under this comment.
I have no idea how much these cars were in 1993 in US$ or GB£, but I do know how much these cars were in DM from several German classic car magazines. The relative price correlations to each other should stay the same. I then threw these numbers into an inflation calculator, e voilá. The prices do have research behind them.
I feel honored in a weird way. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the article. Give this whole thing a bit of a new light
The FJ-1 concept (correct me if im wrong) is so sexy. I personally love the “modernizing” of these classic sports cars. It really is neat!
FT-1
Absolutely agree with you my friend
Thank you! The Supra was always a high class premium GT car. It became popular for tuning when prices for it dropped to the point where an average 25 year old could probably afford one used, until then, mostly richer guys and big tuning shops bought and tuned them. It should be appreciated as a top tier, JDM sports car legend, not a fast car for the common folk
To be honest, the only fast cars for common folk that really ever existed are muscle cars, the other common folk cars were made to be fun(not fast) and/or economical.