Schitzo Frenetic

TOYOTA REVIVES A REVERED MODEL NAME, BUT DOES THIS JOINT VENTURE WITH BMW LIVE UP TO THE SUPRA BADGE?

- Andrew Frankel

MORE THAN ANYTHING, this Toyota Supra is remarkable for the fact it exists. The imperative that it make money meant Toyota could not do the car by itself, but the joint venture with BMW that created it and the Z4 has been so fraught that Tetsuya Tada, Supra’s refreshingly honest chief engineer, told me “there were many times when I believed it simply would not happen”.

So you might fear some unsatisfactory compromise between Toyota’s craving for a balls-to-the-wall Porsche Cayman rival and BMW’s no less strong, but more commercially-motivated desire, to build a broadly defined sporting GT.

If so, you’re not alone; Toyota did too. Which is why once the hard points had been agreed – platform, powertrain, wheelbase and so on – the two projects became separate entities, to the extent that Tada-san has driven a Z4 just once and has no idea how his car differs from theirs in terms of settings for suspension, steering, and electronically controlled differential. “If you’re going to compare the Supra to another car, compare it to the Cayman,” he said. That’s fighting talk.

It’s an intriguing car even before you’ve fired up BMW’s 250kW twin-scroll, single-turbo straight six. Remember too, it’s the first car developed from scratch by Toyota’s in-house Gazoo Racing high-performance division, hence its full title of Toyota GR Supra. I think it looks great, save some fussiness around the tail, but the hybrid BMW/Toyota interior takes acclimatization. I don’t suppose too many Toyota customers will be outraged by the clear and effective iDrive interface, and the bespoke instrument pack is informative and attractive. But the BMW switchgear looks odd in here, at least to me.