There are car builders which nurture classic and iconic sports cars and bring them to perfection. A classic two seater coupé with a well sounding straight six under its long hood and with all the power fed to the rear wheels.

This car builder is Toyota, and the car is the Supra. This sports/GT has been honed and carefully improved over five model generations now and is better than ever.

The Supra is not only race proven over the years, speeding from success to success under the flag of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s President Aiko Toyoda actually hurtles this Supra himself around the Nürburgring Nordschleife for hours on end. The result is a breathtaking machine. We present you here its highlights…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

First worldwide GR model of Gazoo Racing

Actually this fifth generation marks a remarkable début for Toyota Gazoo Racing, in establishing its GR model range. They couldn’t have chosen a better car.

Toyota Gazoo Racing is the global organisation of Toyota’s worldwide racing and sporting activities. They chalked up last year a win in Le Mans and also won the Dakar rally.

Tetsuya Tada’s masterpiece

Chief engineer kept the layout and character of the original GT 2000 and the previous Supra generations firmly in mind when designing this latest Supra.

Short wheelbase, wide track, low gravity point, low weight and a very stiff chassis are the ingredients for pur sang handling. The 3 litre straight six has a twin scroll turbo and develops 340 DIN horsepower and 500 Nm torque. It is coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission, and guarantees powerful accelerations and indeed tons of pulling power at all engine speeds.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing was instrumental in honing the new sports car’s performance, working extensively on the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife and surrounding roads in Germany to achieve the most agile, stable and rewarding handling possible. Further extensive testing was carried out on roads around the world.

To be certain that the car delivered on its promise, Toyota President Akio Toyoda himself put it to the test at the Nürburgring in his role as a Master Driver before giving it the final green light.

New Toyota GR Supra customer deliveries will start from summer 2019. By the way, did you know that all cars will be manufactured in Graz, Austria?

Just look at the photos here, and indeed we are looking forward to driving this absolute gem!

Hans Knol ten Bensel