{"id":23784,"date":"2019-05-21T14:34:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T18:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=23784"},"modified":"2019-05-22T14:38:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T18:38:55","slug":"payne-toyotas-new-supra-is-fast-furious-and-fordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/payne-toyotas-new-supra-is-fast-furious-and-fordable","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Toyota\u2019s new Supra is fast, furious and \u2019fordable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/05\/13\/PDTN\/2364ad1d-b708-4bfc-a6cf-3b38840bf236-supra_fr-ontrack.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The 2020 Toyota Supra is a blast to drive fast. The neutral handling means the car changes directions quickly - and can be drifted at will.\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><p><em>The 2020 Toyota Supra is a blast to drive fast. The neutral handling means the car changes directions quickly &#8211; and can be drifted at will.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Toyota, Toyota)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">The 2020 Toyota Supra may never have happened without Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">Three years after the last-generation Supra had been discontinued, the 2001 action film\u00a0\u201cThe Fast and the Furious\u201d cast the car\u00a0as Paul Walker\u2019s\u00a0tire-burning co-star. The Japanese sports car became a mega-hit, more coveted in retirement than when new.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cSupra, Supra, Supra. It\u2019s all we heard from dealers and fans, especially on social media,\u201d says 2020 Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada. So in 2014 Toyota rolled out a jaw-dropping concept car at the Detroit auto show called the\u00a0FT-1. Everyone knew it was a Supra tease. Social media went loco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Five years later\u00a0the new-generation Supra is finally here. It was worth the wait.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-RyqGKjdPI9g\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">The sexy Supra has its father\u2019s silver screen appeal. It\u2019s a rockin\u2019, sockin\u2019 looker complete with its own glorious\u00a0turbocharged\u00a0six-cylinder soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">At full tilt on the back roads of Virginia and Summit Point Motorsports Park, Supra is addictive. Its quick, tail-happy handling has been tuned with the next \u201cFast and the Furious\u201d sequel in mind. Its tail-kicking\u00a0365 pound-feet of torque comes on like a light switch at just 1,600 rpms. And its adjustable, bolstered seats will keep you comfy for hours of backroads fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">But the new Supra has also learned from papa\u2019s high-living ways with a smaller price tag and smaller, more-athletic chassis that should make it more accessible to more drivers. Call it fast, furious\u00a0and \u2018fordable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">From the green flag, Supra\u2019s development team made no bones about its target: the Porsche Cayman\/Boxster, the best-handling sports car on the planet for under $100,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Tag-teaming with the BMW Z4 Roadster \u2014 with which Supra shares its chassis and drivetrain \u2014 the pair double-team the Stuttgart star. The Bimmer takes on the drop-top Boxster, the Supra takes on the Cayman coupe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">High-five Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda. Overnight, we sports-car junkies have seen our choices double. And at a more affordable price. When the Supra\u00a0bowed out in &#8217;98, it carried\u00a0a Cayman-like price tag (adjusted for inflation). While the comparable, inline-6 powered BMW will be priced closer to the Boxster at $63,000, the Supra will cost 10 grand below Cayman (with an even cheaper turbo-4 version possible, too) with more standard features and two more cylinders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Those two pistons are crucial.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-RyqGKjc5yDM\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/05\/13\/PDTN\/6b12a633-5c78-4221-8222-db25ebea128b-supra_rr3-4.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Big hips: The 2020 Toyota Supra shows off its muscular rear hindquarters. With sticky, 10.8-inch rear tires the car has plenty of grip around corners.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/05\/13\/PDTN\/6b12a633-5c78-4221-8222-db25ebea128b-supra_rr3-4.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/05\/13\/PDTN\/6b12a633-5c78-4221-8222-db25ebea128b-supra_rr3-4.JPG?width=500&amp;height=281\" \/><em>Big hips: The 2020 Toyota Supra shows off its muscular rear hindquarters. With sticky, 10.8-inch rear tires the car has plenty of grip around corners.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Cayman once boasted one of the best soundtracks in the sports car genre. Its normally-aspirated, flat-6 mill was heaven at high revs. But Porsche has succumbed to Europe\u2019s green nannies and stuffed the current, so-called 718 generation Cayman with a flat turbo-4. It hits all the performance targets but sounds like, well, an angry VW bug. Fast and &#8230; not so furious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Enter the Supra and its BMW-sourced inline-6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">It&#8217;s muffled a bit by its (torque-tastic) turbo, yes, but Toyota has tuned it to the nines with an aggressive note on start-up, piped in cabin sound, and \u2014\u00a0<em>BRAAAP!<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a gargling, farting backfire when you let off the gas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cNot so fuel-efficient,\u201d says Tada-san, \u201cbut it sounds great.\u201d Now that\u2019s a sports car. Let Toyota\u2019s hybrid sedans appease the nannies. Its halo sports car is box-office beefcake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">So how does the Supra measure up to the Cayman on track?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">They are surprisingly different, even though the Supra was baselined to the Cayman S and boasts a lower center-of-gravity. It&#8217;s even lower\u00a0than its cheaper sibling, the Toyota 86 with a boxer-4 engine, heretofore autodom\u2019s low-CG standard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Cayman feels like it&#8217;s on rails around fast turns. Its mid-engine chassis is resistant to the driver\u2019s efforts to hang the tail out. Its dual-clutch transmission is ultra precise, with rapid-fire up\/down shifts. Porsche carves apexes like a scalpel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Supra, on the other hand, encourages drifting. Tada-san and team tuned the chassis with amateur racers in mind. Miss your turn-in? The Supra\u2019s neutral handling responds aggressively to steering input to rotate the car quickly. The result is a car that \u2014 with huge, sticky 10-inch front and 11-inch rear Michelin Supersports \u2014 is a joy to drive sideways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">It\u2019s not the fastest way around the track \u2014 but it will put a grin on your face. I had to discipline myself around Summit\u2019s tight, Shenandoah Race Track not to hang it out everywhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Physics also plays a role. At nearly 3,400 pounds the Toyota is closer to a V-6 Camaro than the 2,888-pound Cayman. As a result, the Supra has more mass to control through corners and is jouncier over severe road undulations. Indeed, the Supra\u2019s speed (117 mph at the end of Summit\u2019s back straight compared to 98 for the Toyota 86) and whippy handling mean some drivers will prefer Toyota\u2019s tidier, 201-horse brother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Give the handling medal to Porsche \u2014 but give the passion prize to Supra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">That passion is underlined by the inline-6. The single-clutch eight-speed transmission doesn&#8217;t match Cayman\u2019s sophisticated\u00a0dual-clutch tranny, but it\u2019s so good you won\u2019t miss the lack of manual option. It keeps you in the meat of the 6\u2019s torrid torque band all the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The emotion continues in the styling, which shames Paul Walker\u2019s ol\u2019 high-wing Supra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">I swooned over the FT-1\u2019s nose, which appeared to have been taken right off a Ferrari F1 car. The snout has been modified a bit to accommodate engine air-intake needs, but the finished product is uniquely Toyota and very racy (see if you can tell where the bumper structure runs).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">That aggressive look continues across the twin-bubble roof, rocker panels and muscular rear shoulders \u2014 my favorite view of the car. It\u2019s a panther ready to pounce. And that big hatchback easily swallowed my luggage, plus a golf bag if that\u2019s your game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Inside, BMW prevails \u2014 which ain&#8217;t a bad thing. The remote rotary infotainment\u00a0dial is very good, as is Bimmer&#8217;s monostable shifter. Toyota&#8217;s own digital display is properly racy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Typical of Japanese exterior design these days, the Supra is bristling with fake air ports. But Toyota says they are properly located should tuners\u00a0want to modify them to get more downforce\/engine capability from the car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Racing, by the way, is integral to Supra. Its \u201cGR\u201d trunk badge references Toyota\u2019s Gazoo Racing team, with plans to enter the car in GT series across the globe. But with its combination of long torque band and short wheelbase, Michigan enthusiasts will find they can push the envelope of the production car on rural roads as well as on track.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Toyota now joins Chevy with a pair of accessible sports cars ranging from the $27,000\u00a086 to the rockin\u2019 Supra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see them in &#8220;The Fast and the Furious 9.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"presto-h3\"><strong>2020 Toyota Supra<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive, 2-passenger sports car<\/p>\n<p>Price: $50,920 base, including $930 destination fee ($56,115 3.0 Premium trim and rare $57,375 Launch Edition as tested)<\/p>\n<p>Powerplant: 335\u00a0horsepower, 365\u00a0pound-feet of torque, turbocharged inline 6-cylinder<\/p>\n<p>Transmission: 8-speed automatic<\/p>\n<p>Performance: 4.1-second zero-60 (mfr.); 155 mph top speed<\/p>\n<p>Weight: 3,397\u00a0pounds<\/p>\n<p>Fuel economy: EPA 24 city\/31 highway\/24 combined<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\nHighs: Hot bod; obnoxious, snarling inline-6<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\nLows: Porky; tight fit for a big\u00a0dude with\u00a0helmet<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Overall: 4\u00a0stars<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2020 Toyota Supra is a blast to drive fast. The neutral handling means the car changes directions quickly &#8211; and can be drifted at will.\u00a0(Photo: Toyota, Toyota) The 2020 Toyota Supra may never have happened without Hollywood. Three years after the last-generation Supra had been discontinued, the 2001 action film\u00a0\u201cThe Fast and the Furious\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}