Sushi Or Schnitzel?

The new Supra has an identity crisis, says Harris – returning Japanese hero on top, BMW underneath. Has Toyota got away with it?

- Chris Harris

The window for a comeback is always narrower than you think. The music industry normally provides us with a timely reminder of this, as some washed-up Eighties unit decides to relaunch a career that never really happened in the first place, and only a few of us saddos actually remember who they were. As for a car, how long can you leave something – a name that truly resonated for an entire generation – before it feels like the moment has passed?

The last A80 Supra was built between 1993 and 1998 (although it soldiered on in Japan until 2002). It was the archetypal Japanese sports car, a 928-sized bruiser deified on the cover of Max Power – vapourising Bridgestones and swaddled in VeilSide scoops. It was an instant legend, the 2JZ straight-six proved strong enough to support every tuning fantasy and, to cement its legend, Smokey Nagata was nicked attempting 200mph in one near Peterborough. It was the definitive Japanese machine of the Nineties, it was Japan in a car. It was Toyota’s 911. And we all loved it.

Now I might have laboured that last bit, but you get my drift – you just don’t resurrect the Supra name lightly. It means something to people. Well, sad people like me anyway.

So, when Toyota first showed us the FT-1 concept at Detroit in 2014, there was much understandable excitement. Rumours of a collaboration with BMW were confirmed… and then we all got carried away with the hype: V10s, lightweight construction, massive performance. But the gestation period for a Japanese sports car isn’t fast, and so the project began to drag from the start. It was on-and-off more times than I can count before finally being greenlighted a few years ago. It must have appeared as a finished ‘concept’ at more motor shows than any other modern car.