Let me tell you what I’m happy to be done with: the rumors, concept cars, prototype drives, spy photos and wild theories about the 2020 Toyota Supra, all of which have been in ready supply since the joint venture with BMW was made known six or seven years ago. (That doesn’t even count all the crazy reports that came out between that, and when the MKIV Supra was killed off in the late 1990s.) Let tell you what I’m not here for: rumors, concept cars, prototype drives, spy photos and wild theories about the next Supra.
Like a thirsty CNN commentator on the verge of a full-body orgasm as they howl “Well NOW it’s time to talk about the MIDTERMS” the immediate second an election is over, there is already chatter about the A100 Supra that could follow up the new, BMW-based A90.
This, after one of the most protracted new car rollouts in history, one that had everyone on Car Internet demanding to just see the damn car already.
Allow me to be extremely clear: I’m not doing this again with you, Toyota.
The specter of the next Supra is raised in this interview with chief engineer Tetsuya Tada over in Japanese Nostalgic Car. As with every interview with Tada, it’s a good one because he’s an interesting guy; he talks about how his dad was a rally car driver in Japan and how he’s owned both a Toyota AE86 and an R32 Skyline GT-R.
Then we get to this:
With the specter of autonomous, electrified cars at the doorstep, the car industry is undergoing a massive sea-change. “This is probably the last car we’ll be able to make of this kind.” Tada-san confessed, “Especially on a global scale.”
Does that mean there won’t be an A100 Supra?
“The A100 will come, one day, but the taste will probably be very different,” Tada-san replied, “It might be an EV, or autonomous, or like a Formula E car. Who knows. The A100 might take the Supra name in a drastically different direction. Definitely different from lineage of A70 and A80.”
Listen, Tada-san, I don’t even want to think about an A100 Supra yet. I don’t want to know when it might be coming. I don’t want to see any spy photos of the camouflaged prototypes, I don’t want to hear about any concept cars, and I can’t stomach following another years-long (or decades-long!) development process.
Like, read this story from five years ago. That’s just one. There were stories about this car a decade before that. At the rate we’re going, the Jalopnik intern who will be forced to write about the A100 Supra hasn’t even been born yet.
For now, the election just ended, and I don’t wanna hear about the fucking midterms yet, thanks very much!
“But PG,” you may be saying right now, “you run a car news website. You have to cover a new Supra when and if it starts development. This is in your blood. You say you want to stay away, but deep down you know you need this. At the very least, you need the traffic.”
And yeah, that’s true! But I am not dealing with that crap right now. I don’t even want to hear about this A100 Supra. I wish the thought of it had never entered my mind. I was happier before I knew about it. I don’t even care if it drives itself around the Nürburgring and is a joint venture with Tesla this time. I just want to be left alone.
So Toyota, or the internet, or whoever else: get outta here with this “new Supra” talk. I just can’t. I’m not doing this with you.
Not for a few years yet, at least.