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
Why like at this post equals only to 1? Why not hundred? Amazing post. A lot of arguments and totally not delussional. Just thank you
VAG’s EA888 has a cast iron block. Just sayin’.
Regarding your hatred towards cast iron blocks, they aren’t the spawn of Satan. Diesels have iron blocks for a reason.
However, I guess you’re trying to make the point that it would be silly for Toyota to put an iron block engine into a brand new Supra.
Iron blocks aren’t the work of the devil himself, they just don’t belong in a modern sports car. Diesel engines are a different story, an iron block makes perfect sense there.
Irresponsible is turning off those computer settings then thinking you’re a racecar driver suddenly. Then you end up on a “sports car fail compilation” video.
I own a MK4 Supra and although I do agree with most of this, I have to say the character of the new car still worries me.
But this isn’t limited to just the Supra, it affects all modern equivalents of models that have been released several times over the years.
The Supra was always my dream car because it looked gorgeous, it sounded amazing and was a technological masterpiece capable of beating almost anything! However with this new one, I feel like it’s all performance and no joy. The shape isn’t as exciting (the test models are camouflaged I admit) the sound is flat and it’s lost it’s presence.
Compare it to modern F1. The cars of the 90’s were far more outrageous and exciting back then compared to todays cars, but they weren’t designed with that in mind. They were just made to go as fast as possible.
It’s exactly the same story with modern road cars. Performance wears a very different face to what it did back when cars like the MK4 Supra were made and it most likely will never be the same. And that’s exactly why all the new cars can stay in the showroom while I drive around in a now 17 year old car with the biggest smile on my face! :D
If the new supra isn’t just an exact replica of the original, the “purists” won’t be happy. That’s been true of every new generation of any car. They’ll get over it lol
Which is (either fortunately or sadly) why the STi has remained largely the exact same with facelifts ever since the Bugeye. Macpherson all around, the EJ hasn’t gone anywhere and neither has the chassis design.
Same as the gtr, and thr gt86, we are having a japanese sports Renaissance, these will all be drift cars in 20 years, i bet
until they end up costing 20k (in todays money) for a good one used.
Can an all alloy inline 6 still wear the JZ name?
I believe that at least part of the gripe to the people is the void between GT86 and Supra. Back in the day, if you couldn’t afford a supra but wanted a sporty Toyota, you looked at MR2 or Celica. Both covered wide spectrum of people with choice of one-point-embarrassing engines to WRC derived turbocharged GT4 or Carlos Sainz edition missiles. Now we just don’t have that.
After Celica died, at least you still had the T-Sport Corolla that was almost as powerful as GT86. Okay, you had to rev it to death to wake it up, and even then it wasn’t really interesting but at least they tried. And that was it for a decade or so. STI is looking into this GT86 issue and other countless tuning houses but still there is a big empty void there for Toyota…
If we go even further into the history, then Supra’s true origin is at A40…Celica XX or Celica-Supra as i know it. Then people didn’t know better but if Toyota wants a reinvention… i think that’s the spot that they need to look into and do it again. Of course noone is thinking that far and are just butthurt that new Supra is not MK IV A80. A 25 year old program!!! Cutting edge then and has stood a test of time but still…25 years…
I think fanboys see the supra as affordable becausr they only drove it on Gran turismo. In that game jdm is so much more affordable than european cars