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To be fair with Toyota, I need to mention the Supra model. As a Toyota anti fan, I have to admit that some time ago they actually made a good car (and not only this one)! And as blog cannot be only “against”, I decided to write few “pro” words about this great car.

What is a good car?

For me: car that represents something – has the “xfactor”. Is a niche, a good a value for money etc. Shows the capability of a producer to make a fun car, and not be overwhelmed by the accountants that will try to cancel the project.

1994 Supra Targa

Supra had these values. I want to focus especially on Supra Mark IV.

The styling came from Toyota Celica, but was made bigger. In 1986 Supra (CelicaSupra) become its own model, and any connections with Celica were abandoned. All four generations of Supra were produced with inline 6-cylinder engine.
The original plan of Toyota, was to produce a car that would be competitive for Datsun (now Nissan) Z-car. In my opinion first 3 versions, could not compete with the styling of Datsun (which for that time was comarable only to Ferrari), but were competitive in other areas.

Though Supra became the real Japanese supercar with Mk4 generation. I still remember when my father was servicing black Supra Mk3 in his garage. I was around 15-16 years old back then, and the car was like a dream. I remember it was 3 liter (non turbo) 200 HP version with full luxury equipment inside. You couldn’t see many cars like this in Poland that days.

Supra Mark IV (1993 – 2002)

It was the first Supra that was serious high performance car. The body and engine were completely redesigned. Though the construction is now 16 years old, I think that body ages very well. I wouldn’t mind if it would be produced still with the same line.

Engines available:

• 3 liter 6-inline producing 220 hp (160 kW; 220 PS) at 5800 rpm and 210 ft-lb (280 Nm) at 4800 rpm of torque
• and a twin turbocharged version making 280 hp (209 kW; 284 PS) and 318 ft-lb (431 Nm) of torque for the Japanese version.
• For export model (America/Europe) Toyota increased the power output to 320 hp (240 kW; 320 PS) at 5600 rpm and 315 ft-lb (427Nm) at 4000 rpm.

The turbocharged variant could achieve 0-60 mph in as low as 4.6 seconds and 1/4 mile (402 m) in 13.1 seconds at 109 mph (175 km/h). The turbo version was tested to reach over 291 km/h (181 mph) all-stock, but the cars are restricted to just 180 km/h (112 mph) in Japan and 250 km/h (155 mph) elsewhere. European versions also had an air intake on the bonnet (hood).

That days the competition was: Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4, Nissan 300ZX Turbo and Nissan Skyline. Besides the last one, Supra was positioned very good.

Interesting milestone: unique Formula One inspired braking system allowed the Supra Turbo to record a 70 mph (110 km/h) – 0 braking distance of 149 feet (45 m), the best braking performance of any production car tested in 1997 by Car and Driver magazine. This record was finally broken after 7 years in 2004 by 3 feet (0.91 m) by a Porsche Carrera GT.

But the real deal started when the tuners found out that the basic engines of Supra were capable to do “more” The car was heavy and pretty large, therefore I could manage with serious modifications. Supra was favoured to be a drag racer. You can find on YouTube some amazing over 1000 HP versions racing.

As an iconic sports car, the Supra has appeared in numerous video games, movies, music videos and TV shows. Some of the most notable appearances include the Gran Turismo, Need for Speed, and Midnight Club series of video games and the 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious.

The conclusion is that Toyota CAN make a good car. An icon which performance is exceptional and the design doesn’t age. And the same time sell it for a very competitive price (unfortunately the Yen exchange rates in 90′ didn’t make it so competitive, but it still was cheaper then Prosche etc).

Luckily Toyota is thinking about coming back with some serious car of this class (FT-HS). If they will…and it will be “good”, I will change my opinion about this carmaker

For the longer story and more info, please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Supra