When the A90 Toyota Supra finally arrived on the scene as a production car, detractors immediately came out of the woodwork to hate it for sharing a BMW platform. It doesn’t matter that Toyota set the specs for its chassis, and it doesn’t matter that engineers in Japan did the final tuning; there’s a BMW logo on the oil filter, which means the car is terrible. Well, now signs point to the Supra’s demise in the next two years. I hope you are happy.
A report from Automotive News claims that the Supra will become extinct in 2026, along with the BMW Z4, when production at Magna Steyr’s Austrian plant ends. Given BMW’s reluctance to give the Z4 another chance, it appears Toyota will have to build a next-generation Supra itself – something that seems unlikely given the company’s reluctance to build coupes without a partner. You’ve won, haters: the car you despise because it’s part German will now be completely dead. Is that better?
There is some hope for a continuation of the Supra line, and it comes from one of Toyota’s most dedicated gearheads: Tetsuya Tada himself. During the initial launch of the A90 Supra, Tada-san told Japanese Nostalgic Car that an A100 would be on the table – eventually:
“The A100 will come one day, but the taste will probably be very different,” Tada-san replied. “It could be an electric car, or an autonomous car, or a Formula E car. Who knows. The A100 could take the Supra name in a drastically different direction. Definitely different from the line of the A70 and A80.”
He then turned the conversation back to his mentor. “I want to continue Suzuki-san’s wishes, but if I pass the baton to a new engineer, I don’t know what will happen.”
When the time comes for the A100, Tada-san will probably retire.
If you all hated the beautiful ZF 8HP gearbox that the Supra came out with, how would you like an electric version? An autonomous version? In the search for some kind of purity, some imagined perfection, you let a fantastic car slip through your fingers.
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