The mystique of the MKIV Toyota Supra has sort of faded since the early 2000s. We know that there are faster cars now, better cars. So it’s a treat to see someone still rocking the prototypical Supra — 1,000 horsepower, giant tires, an intake through the headlight — and it being as hilarious and wonderful as you’d imagine.
I grew up with the MKIV Supra being kind of a legend in the car world. There were faster cars, more desirable ones, but nothing had quite the veil of mystery as the last of the Bubble Era cars. Every one that you’d see, you’d wonder if behind the plain face sat a monster single turbo setup, 1,000 horsepower, and innumerable highway roll races to its credit. Maybe I just spent too much time on streetfire.net watching this kind of thing:
Hoonigan dragged out one of these exact kinds of cars nominally to race against Travis Pastrana’s Gymkhana Subaru on an airstrip. The dead-heat drag fell in the Subaru’s favor, which is exactly as you’d expect for something with a sequential transmission and all-wheel drive. Even in a roll, the Subaru beat the Supra, which struggled to keep itself from wheelspinning off the road.
But that’s not really the point of a Supra like this. It is an experience of a car. The staccato bark of the 2JZ watatatatatata at its redline, sounding like power both like and unlike a Matra V12. The kaclunk of the car shifting into first. The quiet demeanor of the owner Moe Khan of New York’s Petrolwerks, who waves away the idea that the car is anything special while he runs 40 pounds of boost through a built motor.
This is the kind of person who ends up with a Supra like this: relaxed, understated, not so different from the car itself.
So what happens when you put a mere mortal behind the wheel of a car like this? Laughing. Giggling. “Holy fucking shit,” Hoonigan’s Hert says after his first run in the car, the back tires spinning the moment he gets into it. The section starts around 15 minutes into the video:
“I can’t stop laughing,” Hert says after stepping out of the car for the last time, actually shaking.
It’s easy to become jaded in this genre. It’s nice to see that there is unbridled joy in these old classics, clichés, overpriced status cars. There’s something very real there.