In a single tweet posted towards the end of this part Friday (July sixth), Toyota Europe merely stated that, “#ToyotaSupra is back. A90. At Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018 @fosgoodwood”. Unsurprisingly, no further details of the returning sports coupe were announced.
Despite Toyota remaining coy on technical information, what is known as that the Supra will be build alongside the new BMW Z4 in Graz, Austria by Magna Steyr and come powered by a 3.0-litre straight-six turbocharged petrol likely to be the same as the BMW M3/M4 Competition Pack, developing 331kW, with drive going to the rear wheels.
Conflicting reports have however surfaced again as to the Supra’s transmission options, with Britain’s Auto Express alleging that Supra Chief Engineer, Tetsuya Tada, had backtracked on his original statement that only an automatic gearbox would be offered.
“We are aware there is a huge fanbase for the previous models around the world, so we made sure to interview them to hear their expectations and opinions before we started the project,” the publication quoted Tada as saying of the possibility of a manual ‘box.
Earlier this year, Tada also remarked that the Supra would be a “pure sports car” compared to the more luxury focused Z4, and that it has been benchmarked against the Porsche 911 during the development phase.
“I do not want to make [the] Supra a work of art, but I want to make it a sports car [that will] last. It is amazing to ride [in] a Porsche, [especially] its handling and sensuality of the engine. This was a very useful reference for the development of the next Supra,” he said.
Based on recently leaked information, the Supra will reportedly measure 4 380mm in overall length, have a wheelbase of 2 470mm, height of 1 290mm and width of 1 855mm while tipping the scales at 1 496kg, some 14kg lighter than the A80 Supra that went out of production in 2002.
According to a further report by Autocar, the A90 Supra’s dimensions are 140mm shorter in length, 45mm wider and 15mm taller than the A80, with wheelbase being trimmed by 80mm. It however states that the Supra’s alleged weight is some 250kg up on the 86, but 14kg lower than the PDK equipped Porsche 911 Carrera S.
Also unconfirmed is the possibility of the Supra being sold underneath Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division and the possibility of their being an even more powerful variant sold underneath the GRMN banner like the Yaris. At present though, these claims are pure speculative.
