As we said in our earlier article with regards to the new 2019 Toyota GR Supra, we had driven Toyota's newest flagship sports car and it was bloody good fun. You can see the drive was just a short one but super memorable as we did a high speed run and some handling exercises which still allows us to have some pretty good initial impressions on this Euro-Japan hybrid sports car.
The 2019 Supra is quite a drive. It rides well and handles as it should. It is better than a Toyota 86 in that it has power to push harder than that also rear wheel drive coupe. This one is based on the BMW Z4 and is a product of Toyota's partnership with BMW. It takes the Z4 chassis, engine and drivetrain and then makes it into a Supra. It has 340PS and 500Nm torque, rear wheel drive and has an 8 speed sports tuned automatic transmission (most likely the very good ZF transmission). 0-100kmh in 4.3seconds and somewhere in the 250kmh max speed region. We managed over 200kmh easily.
In the flesh, or metal, the new GR Supra does look like a Supra and not like a Z4 when viewed in photographs. So it's all better in terms of styling even with the multitude of fake vents (like the fender vents and door vents which lead to nowhere) here as it adds to the Japanese-ness of the sports car compared to the donor car.
It does work actually. Toyota's engineers approach the car with driver and car interaction in mind and it does give it in spades. The steering is super quick, the rear is mobile and the front end is planted. With the traditional long bonnet and short rear, you get that very direct steering experience as you sit as close to the rear axle as possible. Everything is direct and if you turn the steering, the whole car actually changes direction quickly. At first maybe quicker than you'd expect.
I can see that once you learn how the car behaves, it will be giving you epic rear wheel drive pleasure every time you want it to do so.
Those that have driven both the Z4 and this Supra have said that this Japanese version rides better and feels slightly different. I think it also sounds different and a little less manufactured - Toyota says they've tuned the exhaust system to be as natural as possible without use of any piped in sound. Every blip of the throttle will be different and unique. From the videos posted, you can see it is distinctive.
Watch the video above folks. I enjoyed driving the new Supra. It does live up to its name. Euro-Japanese hybrid or not, it is a Supra and it feels like one. Maybe even more nimble than the A80 - the iconic 1990s Supra most of us are familiar with.
And watch the launch video below if you haven't. The folks at UMW Toyota Malaysia have explained a little on what makes the new GR Supra tick. - (c) 2019 Motoring Malaysia
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