I’ve never met Tetsuya Tada, but I can tell you he’s not an idiot. He’s Toyota’s global chief engineer these days, but he was also the man behind the Toyota 86, a wonderful and excellent sports car. Another sign he’s not an idiot: he’s fighting for the Toyota-BMW sports car to be called the Supra.
Smart man.
This comes to us from Australia’s CarAdvice, and while the Aussie pubs have a way of misconstruing vague noncommittal statements as facts, here’s what Tada said in his own words:
Speaking with CarAdvice at the international media drive for the facelifted Toyota 86 range, Tetsuya Tada, the company’s global chief engineer, said he wants the upcoming sports car – co-developed with BMW – to be named Supra.
“I love the Supra and I love the name Supra,” Tada-san said.
“It’s historically important to Toyota. We’re pushing for the name Supra for the new car we are [jointly] developing with BMW.”
Like I said: smart man.
See, Toyota and BMW have been working on this joint sports car project for years and years now, well before that was widely considered a terrible idea. We still don’t know much about the final product, like what engine it will have or what it will look like.
And we also don’t know what the car will be called. I’m with Tada-san in thinking that it would be unbelievably foolish—unforgivable, perhaps even fiscally negligent!—for Toyota to call the car anything but the Supra.
The Supra matters. People remember the Supra. Tons of enthusiasts grew up lusting after one, only to realize that all of them had been turned into bad tuner cars when they were finally old enough and liquid enough to afford one. This is what marketing people call “brand equity.” We dream of the Supra. We have a thirst in our souls and it can only be quenched with more Supra.
Now, I know Toyota is fully capable of fucking this up by calling it the Toyota FRX-3400 or something dumb, but it really should be called the Supra. In America and Europe, at least.
Don’t fuck this up, Toyota.
BMW, call yours whatever you want. Z5 is fine.
h/t Autoblog