This is it – this is the big one. The test that’s been seven years in the making, during which we’ve endured all the teaser images, the grainy spy shots, the carefully managed prototype drives, the international launch and then brief blasts in the UK. But now, finally, the Toyota Supra is out in the wild, free of its minders and ready to do battle.
Those early outings hinted at a car that had the potential to be the real deal, but we needed more than a few miles on a carefully choreographed route to deliver the definitive verdict on one of Toyota’s most eagerly awaited offerings in years, especially one that has painted big red targets on the back of some of the biggest hitters in the sports car firmament.
Of course, the Supra’s arrival hasn’t been without controversy, its relationship to its dizygotic BMW Z4 twin proving more obvious (on the inside, at least) than many had hoped. Yet while Bavaria provides the 335bhp turbo straight six, eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and electronic slippy diff, plus the electrical architecture and switchgear, Toyota claims the Supra’s wide track and short wheelbase – the perfect combination for the intended acrobatic agility – are Japanese to its steel and aluminium core.
So how serious a sports car is the Supra? Well, there’s only one way to find out, which is why we’ve headed for some of South Wales’ most testing Tarmac in close convoy with a pair of formidable foes.
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A wish.
I think often it would be nice if posters stayed on topic and put over their opinions in a polite manner, there's really no need to berate, or correct or insult , if a poster has the wrong info, then by all means inform him of the correct ones, I'm trying to write this this way because on some posts there's too much handbagging, anger, it's only a web page on Cars etc, so, anyway, there you go, I hope you all have a nice Lunch.
Great to have James D aboard!
I can literally see the oh so very explicit and descriptive road test writing skills passed down from John Barker- no doubt the mentor here. A very rare set of writing skills, almost never seen in Auto mags for a great many years now. Great to see the handling of performace cars really isolated into dry roads, wet roads, B-roads, up to the most testing bump riddled ones...decribing all the way through how each car behaves and feels,
I have to wonder (as i have for many years) if any front eninge machine can handle with as much predicability, poise and control as the best from Porsche. It may be that longer, more nose heavy front engine cars, simply will never match something like a Cayman. I bet a few hatches would actually have more traction, have greater stablilty and predicabiity down most roads, than a Cayman. A Civic r, a lightened Focus rs, or classic (1st or 2nd gen0 Impreza, would prove a great comparison. We need a real front vs mid vs rear engine handling shootout, I will always remember how Barker would tell me how a 911's rear engine was actually more predicable to drive hard than a Cayman. J
IT had to be the Toyota
I mean, it was just released and had to be made good in comparisons