The Next Samurai

THE TURBO-SIX, REAR-DRIVE SUPRA PROVES THE THEORY THAT GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT.

- Matt Prior

WELL THIS is the new Toyota Supra. What can I tell you? More like: what am I still unable to tell you?

It’s still dazzle-camouflaged outside. Inside it’s carpeted like someone’s skinned Skippy and draped him over the dashboard. It’s still eight months away from production and therefore still in prototype form. I’m accompanied by a minder whenever I go near it. And they’ll barely tell me a single flipping specification.

They insist the numbers don’t matter. (Which begs the question: why not just tell us, if they’re so unimportant?) What only matters at the moment, they say, is the way it drives, the way it makes you feel. And this, I’m thrilled to report, I can tell you.

I drove it, quite a lot and quite fast by the standards of events that only have four prototype cars available. It’s yet another painful plink in the agonising drip-feed of Supra information that, let’s not forget, began in 2012 when BMW and Toyota announced they were going to work together. Does Toyota really need seven years to build a car?