Toyota evalution : covered by this blog

 For almost a century, Toyota has established themselves as one of the leading car manufacturers in the world. Known for its reliability, cost-effectiveness, and their high resale values, some of their models like the Toyota Corolla now ranks as one of the best-selling cars of all time. Today we’re going to look at a completely different model though. This is the evolution of the Toyota Supra!  The Supra was originally designed in 1978 to compete with the very popular Datsun Z-car, which is now Nissan. Back then the car was sold as the Celica XX in the Japanese market. The Celica XX was the first car in the world to have a built-in navigation system. In 1979 the car was first exported outside of Japan and became known as the Celica Supra.

The A40 model was the first generation Supra and had a 2.6 liter inline 6-engine with 123 horsepower.  This made the car reach a top speed of 115 miles per hour, which wasn’t as fast as the Datsun Z-car that could go to 127 miles per hour. The Supra derived its design from the Toyota Celica hatchback, but there were several differences. The Supra is longer and has an inline-6 engine replacing the four-cylinder engine of the Celica. The car was also more luxurious, which meant that consumers had to pay a higher price. While the Toyota Celica started at $3,200, the Supra had a base price of almost 3 times as high. In 1981, the A50 model was released, which could go 60 miles per hour in 10.2 seconds. This may not sound impressive now but not many luxury cars could do this at the time. Fun Fact The suffix “Supra” means “to surpass” or “go beyond”, 

and the Toyota Supra lived up to its name with each generation having better performance. In 1982 the second generation Supra came to market known as the A60. The design of the car was also based on the Celica model, but was completely redesigned. The engine of the A60 was upgraded to 145 horsepower and throughout its production cycle, Toyota continued to upgrade this model. By the end of its run in 1986 it had an output of 161 horsepower. This made the Supra A60 accelerate to 60 miles per hour in 8.4 seconds, making it much quicker than its predecessor.  

In the North American market, the A60 was available in two distinct models. The P-Type and the L-Type. The P-Type, which stands for Performance, had a sportier interior and manual performance. And the L-Type, which stands for Luxury, had automatic transmission and a more luxurious leather interior. The A60 was very successful and won the “Import Car of the Year” award by Motor Trend.  Fun Fact The first two generations of the Toyota Supra were officially known as the Toyota Celica Supra. 

When production ended for the A60, Toyota began releasing the Celica and the Supra as separate cars. Essentially the first Supra models were a trim package for the Celica. In 1986 the Supra A70 became the third generation Supra. The new engine used in the A70 Supra, the Toyota 7M-GE, was the flagship engine of Toyota’s arsenal. It was significantly upgraded to a more powerful 3-liter inline-6 capable of producing 200 horsepower. 

A turbocharged engine was introduced in 1987, which made the A70 even more powerful. At an output of 231 horsepower, the car could accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 6.4 seconds. The A70 was more luxurious and packed with advanced technology, which made it faster and easier to maneuver at high speed. An example of this advanced technology was an electronically controlled independent suspension system, called the Toyota Electronic Modulated Suspension or TEMS. The top speed of the Supra A70 was improved to 139 miles per hour, compared to 130 miles per hour of the A60. Until 1992 Toyota kept updating the A70 model, making the engine more powerful and adjusting the interior. The fourth generation Supra began with the release of the A80 in 1993. It took various teams working on the design and a period of four years before they came up with the final design.  

The A80 was unlike any other Supra, since it was completely redesigned and placed great emphasis  on a more serious high-performance car. To reduce its weight, the A80 featured an aluminum hood,  roof, and bumper supports, which made the car about 200 pounds lighter. The fourth generation Supra model at base level comes with a naturally aspirated Toyota 2JZ-GE inline-6 producing an output of 220 horsepower. 

 The Japanese model came with an even morepowerful twin-turbocharged engine, which increased the output significantly to 276 horsepower.  For the export model to the American market Toyota upgraded the Supra’s turbo engine with a power output that had beenupgraded to an impressive 321 horsepower! This made the Supra A80 go to 60 miles per hour in only 4.6 seconds! It was also much faster than its predecessor, which had a top speed of 139 miles per hour. The A80 could reach an impressive 155 miles per hour. For the transmission, this model received a new 6-speed manual on the Turbo model but retained the 5-speed manual on the naturally aspirated models.

 The A80 was offered as either coupe or a Sport Roof Targa. In the US the Supra A80 became the first Toyota to include a passenger airbag as a standard. While the model was very successful and won several awards like the Popular Mechanics “Design and Engineering Awards”, there was a global decline in sales of sports coupe like the Supra. For example, the A80 only sold 623 units in the UK, before it was withdrawn in 1996, while the A70 sold 11,551 units. 

Two years later the Supra A80 was also withdrawn from the US markets. Fun Fact The 1994 Toyota’s Supra model was banned in the US by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, because of serious long term reliability issues. The car cannot be imported into the US because it is still blacklisted by the NHTSA. For over 20 years, the thought of a new generation Toyota Supra was just wishful thinking. However, Toyota hinted at the return of the Supra model in 2014 with the Ft-1 concept car. Although little details were disclosed about this concept car, Toyota mentioned that it draws inspiration from some of its past sports cars.  In 2018 Toyota made a GR Supra Racing Concept, which was inspired by the Ft-1 concept.

 It showed the future potential for a car that can deliver high performance on both road and track. But more importantly it made the world excited about the revival of the Supra after more than 20 years. Fun Fact Since the Toyota Supra is a Japanese car, you might not be surprised that it also appeared in several Japanese anime series, including Initial D and Wangan Midnight.  The fifth-generation Supra known as the GR Supra was launched in 2020. The car is built in collaboration between Toyota and BMW. It was based on the BMW Z4, which is a two-door roadster. 

"The new Toyota Supra." The 2020 model is powered by a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 with an output of 335 horsepower. While the 2021 model is fitted with amore powerful 382 horsepower engine. With the upgrade, the 2021 model can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds, while the 2020 model could reach 60 miles per hour in 4.1 seconds. Both models have an 8-speed automatic transmission, but a manual transmission option is not yet available. The Supra has an electronically limited top speed of 155 miles per hour. This limit was put in place because of safety reasons, the car would otherwise be capable of going well beyond this speed. And finally, the latest Supra is the 2022 GR Supra, which will be released in late 2021. Buyers can choose between a 2 or 3-liter turbocharged engine, with the latter capable of generating 382 horsepower. 

The car is designed to take performance and technology to the next level. Drivers can choose between two driver modes, normal and sport. Normal is just for everyday driving, while sport is made for true track-ready performance, tightening the throttle, transmission, steering, suspension and boosting the exhaust sound. The GR Supra comes in 4 different models, with the least expensive being the 2022 Supra 2.0 which starts at just $44,185 dollars. The most exclusive and impressive model is the A91-CF Edition. For this model customers can choose between 3 color options Phantom matte grey, Absolute Zero White and Nitro Yellow. The special edition includes an aero kit made from carbon fiber, which includes a front splitter, chunky side skirts, a ducktail spoiler and large bumper winglets. In total only 600 units of the A91-CF are expected to be built. Fun Fact The first car of the 5th generation Supra was sold for a whopping 2.1 million dollars!  Toyota continues to improve the Supra, with the first model being released in 1979 and the latest model being released more than 40 years later in 2021. I hope you enjoyed this incredible journey, and if you did please subscribe and leave a like, it would be much appreciated!