Words by Marcus Boothby
Let’s make things clear here, the new Toyota GR Supra is not a bad car, if anything, it’s an excellent car thanks to input by BMW. However, we think Toyota should have kept development of the Supra in-house, and should have built it on a Lexus platform.
Lexus already have two sporty cars, one being the ageing RC Coupe and the other being the LC grand tourer. The platform the RC sits on isn’t variable for a modern sports car as the basic design is nearly 30 years old, while the LC sits on the much newer, and more modern TNGA-L platform which is designed for big engine cars with power going to either the rear or all four wheels.
Sure, the A90 Supra would have been a far different car to what we got instead but think of it this way, it would have evolved the same way the Honda NSX and Nissan GT-R did…so better in almost every way. It would have leapt by two generations instead of one. The NSX is now worries most entry level supercars and the GT-R exists solely to destroy lap times and be adorned with lavish and sometimes tacky body-kits.
Think of it this way, basing the Supra on the LC and subsequently the TNGA-L platform, it would have bought the Supra upmarket, rivalling the likes of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and Porsche 911 GTS, whilst being different enough not to rival the LC500. Sure, prices would have gone up but that’s modern cars for you. If you want a better engine, nicer interior and more standard safety kit, you’re going to pay more for it.
The LC500 is the perfect base for the Supra…trust us on this
Gone are the days of the 2JZ, Paul Walker and soft styling, the new Supra should have been a fire breathing cruise missile whilst being able to hold itself on a decent race track.
Imagine this, a new Supra with a 450bhp V8, a state of the art interior, whilst being as throwable as a bag of feathers. This is the Supra we dream of at Motordiction because we’re weird and like to go against the norm. As I said a few lines ago, this ‘what if’ Supra would be expensive (think £80-90k) but we think it would be worth it, plus it would make Toyota a more upmarket brand, which seems to be an upward trend these days. Plus, it would also show the versatility of Toyota’s ever improving TNGA platform. It’s slowly being spread across their entire product line-up in a similar way that VAG used their MQB platform a few years ago.
So, we think Toyota should have gone this route for the Supra, but wait until you see what they should do concerning the MR2 nameplate…it involves a big name brand from Europe.