A new Toyota Supra is just around the corner and it will probably be underpowered, overweight and generally bad. Wait, no, it’s going to be good. Or not. or maybe it will be just like it always has been. Welcome once more to Carguments.
This is the second episode of Carguments, a new series for us in which, basically, we turn a camera at ourselves when we’re normally screaming at each other at our desks.
Are you excited about the new Supra? My boss Patrick George is not. He’s convinced that Toyota will find some way to disappoint us, even though it’s going to have a straight-six engine and rear-wheel drive. It’s part of a joint program with BMW, so the steering will be numb and the engine won’t sound like anything and it’ll basically be a fat 340i. Worse, he thinks the car is only going to have 340 horsepower, and it’s going to be so sad that the Earth will fly into the sun.
This is a fair assessment. A bad Supra is an ill omen. I think the order of the impending apocalypse goes global climate change -> a bad Toyota Supra -> the entire plot of that Los Angeles earthquake movie with The Rock, but everywhere.
I, however, think that Toyota will not be screwing up the Supra for the simple reason that, really, it’s not going to be any different from the old ones. The past few decades have tainted us with YouTube videos of thousand horsepower drag cars and endless Fast and Furious replays. We think of the Supra as an all-conquering superpower in the automotive scene. But each generation, when it debuted, was always a little bit heavier and a little bit less powerful than a hardcore enthusiast might want. Supras, from the get go, always traded some outright performance for refinement. Look at the third-gen Supra, for instance. It had all-independent suspension, but you’d get more raw speed out of a V8 Mustang.
And that’s fine! We know that behind the raw specs, the Supra is a better-built, better-driving, better-to-own vehicle, which is why used ones keep high prices and a cult following worldwide.
But that’s just my thought and I’m also a moron. Am I wrong? (Yes.) Is Patrick right? (Duh.) Watch the video and let us know in the comments.