When the Toyota Supra died, it died quietly—banished to its home market of Japan in 2002, left to rot by a parent company more interested in building 4Runners than waning sports cars. But the legend lived on. Values on the used market never sank far because everybody knew the cars would be all-time classics, especially the 1993-1998 Supras, their production run for the U.S.
Supra superfans have spent the last 16 years holding their breath, hoping the newest rumor of a revival would be the one that came true. Now their prayers have been answered. Toyota trotted out the 2019 Supra on July 12, 2018 at England’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. The A90 Supra, the fifth generation of Supra since 1978, is official. It will debut at the North American International Auto Show in January in Detroit. And weirdly, it’s made of a lot of BMW parts.
Japan meets Germany
This Supra been a long time coming. Normally, it takes about three years to develop a car, but the Supra has been in the oven for seven, said Tetsuya Tada, chief engineer of the A90 project, in an interview posted to Toyota’s UK website on July 19.
Back in 2012, Toyota and BMW began a joint project to develop a common platform that is now shared between the 2019 Supra and 2019 BMW Z4. Sticking with tradition, the ’19 Supra will pack an inline six-cylinder engine under the front hood and run that power through the rear wheels. But because Toyota lacks an I6 of its own, the Japanese car will use Bavarian motivation.
The ZR2 rolls on 31-inches tires, and it’s brawnier than the standard Colorado on which it is based. Specifically, the ZR2 is 3.5 inches wider and sits 2 inches higher. The ZR2’s advanced Multimatic DSSV shock technology is something normally seen on supercars. In this application, the tech is tuned to let the ZR2 excel at both rock-crawling (just remember to lock both the front and rear differentials) and high-speed desert blasts.
An optional turbodiesel has a sophisticated exhaust brake to save the brakes while towing—and it doesn’t rattle off a Jake-brake staccato to let the next town know you’re coming.