The new Toyota Supra has arrived.

New Toyota Supra

Toyota unveiled the long-awaited new Toyota Supra today at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. Anyone that was around in the 80’s and 90’s will remember what an icon the Supra was, giving 911’s and Ferrari’s big frights the world over. And for those who weren’t around then, they’d have undoubtedly come across the mighty Supra in the Need For Speed, Midnight Club or Gran Turismo computer and console games. Paul Walker then cast in stone the cars legendary status in the first Fast and The Furious movie and while that particular example was rather distastefully modified, its something that no true motorhead would pass up the chance to own!

You can only imagine the hype, then, when Toyota announced that they were to revive the Supra name. Not only this, but it was rumored that they were going to partner up with one of the best names in the industry – BMW – a surefire recipe for a dynamically brilliant and involving sportscar…

17 years since the last Toyota Supra rolled off the production line, the all-new Gazoo Racing Supra is here. Silly name, yes, but it’ll likely just be known as ‘the Supra’ so no need to worry there.

We’ll hold off on all of the finer details until we have a proper go in one, but here are the hard facts that you need to know right now – the teasers if you will…

Co-developed with BMW, it shares its architecture and many components with the all-new BMW Z4. This isn’t a bad thing, as BMW has also admittedly repositioned the new Z4 as a more driver-oriented vehicle, so you can rest assured that the new Supra certainly has the good bits beneath its svelte and curvy lines.

The Powerplant

A great deal of attention has been paid to ensuring that the new Toyota Supra is balanced, so it’s no surprise that it benefits from a 50/50 weight split. Featuring the same turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line 6-cylinder motor as the Z4 M40i, the top spec RZ is capable of accelerating from 0-100 km/h in 4.3 seconds with its 250 kW and 500 N.m. The rest of the range is pretty quick too with both the SZ-R and SZ models being powered by the same 2.0-litre in-line 4 motor boasting outputs of 190 kW/400 N.m and 145 kW/320 N.m and 0-100 km/h times of 5.2 and 6.5 seconds respectively. For now, ZF’s 8-speed automatic does duty in the Supra but who know’s what the future may bring. At this stage, we don’t have any word on South African specification either but the usual array of technology and safety systems that you can expect to find on the latest premium vehicles will likely be available, too.

Anybody with eyes will see that the interior is a mishmash of the BMW parts bin, new and old, and you know what? I’m fine with that. If there’s a parts bin that one should take advantage of, it’s BMW’s and I think that Toyota engineers and designers have done a nice job of differentiating the Supra’s interior from that of the BMW Z4.

Quality will likely be top-notch as you can expect from a German/Japanese partnership but the decider will be whether or not the Supra lives up to its name in terms of driver dynamics and sheer seat of your pants excitement – no pressure, then!

New Toyota Supra in South Africa

Expect to see the Supra on South African roads mid-2019. It’s not likely to be particularly cheap, so let’s just hope that it has the driving fizz to match both the hype and its looks!