THIS IS MORE THAN JUST A REBADGED BMW Z4.
Ever since the new fifth generation Toyota Supra was announced it has been criticised by many for working alongside BMW and their new Z4, this is because the Toyota Supra carries this legend that has been ever growing since ‘The Fast and the Furious’ film in 2001 which featured an orange twin turbo fourth generation example of the Supra driven by none other than Paul Walker’s character; Brian O’Connor.
Mk.4 Toyota Supra (The Fast and the Furious: 2001)
The Toyota Supra started its life as the top of the line Celica, the Celica-Supra, it wasn’t until the third generation in 1986 that the Supra branched out on its own no longer carrying the Celica name with it. The Supra at this stage was known for its inline six cylinder turbo-charged power plant, but it was in 1991 when arguable the most famous Toyota engine of all-time made its debut, the 2JZ-GTE, which would become the motor used in the new fourth generation Supra when it began production in 1993, replacing the 7M-GTE found in the top trim level of the mark three Supra. The most powerful version of the 2JZ-GTE would end up producing 321BHP and 451NM of torque. This however is where things get interesting, in the final development stages of the 2JZ-GTE engine it would be sent over to a German Engineering firm known as; Johann A. Krause Maschinenfabrik GmbH. This took place for the 2JZ to get a refinement to meet production car homologation requirements set forth by the former All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship. The fourth generation Supra was also to use a six-speed Getrag manual transmission which was entirely of German origin and found in numerous BMW’s of the time period. This just shows that now with the fifth generation Supra it isn’t the first time that Toyota has worked alongside a German company to develop a sports car, more specifically, a Supra.
All 5 Generations of the legendary Toyota Supra
Fun fact: the fourth generation Toyota Supra was never delivered to Australia, so every Supra of this generation you see was privately imported at some stage in its life.
Now that some of the history of Toyota’s flagship vehicle (taking over from the iconic 2000GT of the late 1960’s) has been taken care of its now time for a proper look at the new fifth generation of the Supra. 335BHP and 500NM of torque at the crank are the quoted numbers for the Supra’s new B58 BMW power-plant, that is 46BHP and 4NM down on the Z4 M40i, yet already on a dyno run done by Car and Driver It has proven 339 wheel horsepower and 579NM at the wheels, showing that in typical BMW fashion massively understated numbers are being shared in the brochure by the manufacturer. Toyota’s chief engineer for both the Toyota 86 and the Toyota Supra; Tatsuya Tada, has said that after meeting with BMW in the early stages of development, where it would be established that the Z4 would target the Porsche Boxster and that the Supra would set its sights on the Porsche Cayman, there was very little to do with each other after these decisions were made, when it came to actual development of the vehicles. When looking at recent online video reviews of the Supra, it is often stated that the Z4 (for those who have also driven it) has a very different character and overall feel to the Supra, thus helping me answer my own question and that is that the Supra isn’t just a rebadged Z4 like many believe it is.
Tada brings up the point that if it wasn’t for BMW there would be no fifth generation Supra at all. If you look at Toyota now and the direction they are heading with hybrids and family cars, the Supra really does come as a (very welcome) surprise to an otherwise lacklustre lineup from Toyota at present (not including the Toyota 86 which in turn actually sparked the return of 2-door sports cars for the brand in 2012). So developing a new inline six-cylinder engine at present would have been far to expensive of a process for a company that really doesn’t need it, the Supra is being made for us, the people, and not for the benefit of Toyota making major profit. For Toyota it is showing that they still can have fun and that they haven’t completely lost touch of their sports car heritage.
Moving on, with development costs being to high to create a “3JZ” engine themselves, Toyota decided to look at who has the best inline six motors, and that is without a doubt BMW who have been continuously building fan favourite inline six engines for decades. As I briefly mentioned before the B58 was chosen to be the new motor for both the Supra and the Z4 paired with an eight-speed automatic ZF gearbox also developed by BMW and putting the power to the ground through the rear wheels, keeping the tradition sports car layout of front engined rear wheel drive. The B58 creates peak torque of 500NM as early as 1600rpm and hold onto that number until the peak horsepower crosses over taking it all the way to its 6500rpm redline. With these power figures it makes the dash from 0-100 in just 4.1 seconds quoted by Toyota, but has made it in just 3.8 seconds being tested by Car and Driver. It’s certainly also worth mentioning that Toyota put the B58 block through their own reliability tests that all Toyota engines go through to maintain that reliable reputation that Toyota is highly praised for, this should help those who are concerned about the reliability of a BMW motor in a trademark Toyota sleep at night, I know it helped me. Also a worthy mention for the exhaust note produced by the B58, it is music to a petrolhead’s ears, with its familiar smooth straight six soundtrack alongside pops and crackles on cue.
B58 Engine inside of a 2020 Toyota Supra
The 2020 GR (Gazoo Racing) Toyota Supra is the first Supra in its lineage to boast both a 50:50 weight distribution and also what’s called a golden ratio for handling; this is when the wheelbase length and track width match, giving the new Supra a ‘golden ratio’ of 1.55. These numbers should come as a warning to the competition of Porsche and Alpine.
After now discussing the lineage, power and development of the new Supra, it’s time to now look at what isn’t very ‘Supra’ about it. The interior is where this majorly looks like a BMW, since on the inside it is one, utilising BMW’s iDrive infotainment system and dashboard layout. The speedometer however has been completely done differently to the Z4 which is a nice welcome addition, looking very clean and sharp. From the looks of it on pre-production models its looks as if the indicator stalk is on the left side (European spec), which if it stays that way would be sacrilege to the Japanese legend, since Japanese cars always feature the indicator on the right hand side of the steering wheel. Much like the Toyota 86 is covered in Subaru logos and badges, the Supra is covered in BMW logos and badges, but this is no surprise since it is built by BMW alongside the Z4 just like with the 86 and BRZ’s.
2020 Toyota Supra Interior
The exterior is where Toyota comes back into the picture even though from side on you can easily see the silhouette of the previous generation Z4 M Coupe with the long hood and short rear end. Looking at the fourth and fifth generation Supra’s side by side you can see how the new Supra has taken some design features from the Mk.4 and modernised them, and unlike many new cars the new Supra is actually marginally smaller than its predecessor.
2020 GR Toyota Supra
2008 Z4 M Coupe
Price, this is a make or break point here in my opinion. In the USA it has been priced at $55k USD for the launch edition GR Supra (red leather seats, a numbered plaque and red mirrors for black and white examples) this equates to roughly $80k AUD, however for the Australia market it will cost you a whopping $105k AUD for the top spec GTS trim model and $94k AUD for the lower spec’d GT model. To compare it to the Supra’s main rivals of the 2019 Alpine A110 ($110k AUD) and the 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman ($131k AUD) it is quite reasonably priced. When first released later in the year we will see whether it’s legendary status can hold up to the wow-factoring price tag.
A lot has been said about the new Supra not only by myself but all automotive journalists around the globe. My verdict on the new Supra (without having driven one) is one of high praise, to even be able to say 2020 Supra is just amazing on its own. I don’t see the new Supra as just a ‘rebadged Z4’ I don’t even look at it as a twin brother, more a close cousin, they each have their own unique look, personality and goal. Personally I think the fifth generation Supra looks stunning, sounds amazing and looks to perform better than ever as a sports car, hopefully down the line there may be a manual transmission to be the cherry on top of an already epic package.
