When The A90 Toyota Supra finally hit the stage How production vehiclecritics immediately came out of the woodwork to hate her providing the BMW platform. Never mind Toyota presented the specifications of its chassisNever mind engineers in Japan did the final tuning – Is BMW logo on the oil filterwhich means the car is terrible. Well, signs now point to the Supra’s demise within the next two years. I hope you are cheerful.
Report from Automotive news claims that the Supra will become extinct in 2026, next to the BMW Z4, when production will end at the Austrian Magna Steyr factory. Given BMW’s reluctance to give the Z4 another chanceit looks like Toyota will have to build the next-generation Supra itself – which seems unlikely given the company’s capabilities reluctance to build a coupe without a partner. You’ve won, haters: the car you despise for being half German will now be completely dead. Is this better?
There is some hope for the Supra line to continue, and it comes from one of Toyota’s most dedicated transmissions: Tetsuya Tada himself. Tada-san said that during the first launch of the A90 Supra Japanese nostalgic car that the A100 will be on the table – eventually:
“A100 will come out one day, but it will probably have a completely different flavor,” Tada-san replied. “It could be an electric car, an autonomous car or something like a Formula E car. Who knows. The A100 could take the Supra name in a drastically different direction. It is definitely different from the A70 and A80 lines.”
He then returned to the conversation with his mentor. “I want to continue Suzuki-san’s wishes, but when I pass the baton to a modern engineer, I don’t know what will develop.”
When the time comes for A100, Tada-san will probably retire.
If you all hated the awesome ZF 8HP transmission the Supra was released with, how will you like the electric version? Standalone version? Searching for some purity, some imagined perfection, you let a fantasy car slip through your fingers.
