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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Will there ever be another true supra?


Marcus GTE
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I know its a sad thought, we all would like to see a new supra in the same spirit of the beloved mkiv. I'm thinking though it might not ever happen again.

 

The reason I had this thought is due to three letters. LFA.

 

The mkiv might have borrowed a lot of its engineering from other Toyota and Lexus cars, but it was the best toyota could do at the time. It brought all of its strengths together to design and form one flagship project. A car that everyone at the company could be so proud of.

 

For me the Lexus LFA is in essance the new generation supra. Built with the same commitment as the supra was in it's day. It was the best car that they could make at the time. Also, at around £40,000 it was punching above its weight in bang for your buck terms. The LFA, an amazing machine though it is, it's hard to compare the price of it next to a car like the Nissan GTR. A car far away from it on price, but not performance. You can't really say that the Same now that it punches above its weight the way the supra did.

 

The fact that Toyota's former chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, who I believe was a driving force behind the supra turning out the way it did, was so involved, tragically to his end, in the development of the LFA, shows me that the attention and commitment to producing a new supra, one that would equal or better in performance and price the likes of the GTR would be a Miricle to see today. The reason being that the cost of all the development needed would command such a price that the cost of the car just couldn't be under £50,000.

 

Another thing is how good would a new supra be without people like Naruse working on it.

 

I think it's a shame that Toyota feel they couldn't trust the supra to be the flagship like it once was. Probably due to the fact they were bitten before when people found it hard to stomach the price to buy a Toyota. Nissan have proved it can be done though.

 

I'd love to see a new supra to compete with the GTR, and if it ever happens it would be an incredible achievement but It seems unlikely they would put out a car that can equal or better the LFA for a fraction of the price. (£300+!?)

 

Does anyone get what I mean about the feeling of the LFA kinda ruined everything for the future of the supra?

 

I think it was originally developed with being the next supra and took on a life of its own when costs got so high. I might be completely wrong there, what do u think?

 

P.s I had this thought today after seeing the club twitter account tweet pics of the LFA. Thanks for reading

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The Supra was a flagship car at the time, but now any equivalent cost sports coupe would be branded as a Lexus, as that's just the way of the marketing world. So really you should be asking will Lexus produce a sports coupe in a similar vein to the Supra, at an equivalent cost, allowing for inflation. There are a lot of badge snobs out there, all fur coat an no kniickers, who wouldn't buy an NSX or the current GTR because of Honda or Nissan badging, and similarly a lot of people associate Toyota with foreign taxi drivers, and wouldn't dream of buying a high end one as opposed to a Mercedes or Lexus. It's a funny old world.

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I agree with Chris there are far to many brand snobs that would dismiss any new Supra due to its badge.

 

Lets face it most people who drive cars are image freaks and what the car means socially is far more important to how it actually drives or performs.

 

The GTR would be far more prolific in the UK if this factor did not exist. It is better than all its competitors in so many ways and shows how much of a mark up you pay for a name when compared to a similar, if not inferior spec car.

 

My other thought is that in order to have the same impact as the original, the performance of any new Supra would need to be at least the same if not better than the current GTR for relatively the same price. I just don't think Toyota/Lexus have the will to do this and I don't realistically think it's possible too.

Edited by mwilkinson (see edit history)
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Only thing we can hope for is the new components built for the LFA will be put into future cars and they will as a result be able to produce similar performance at planet earth prices. I might live in the past too much. I guess re- branding has been around for a while Chris, ie celica supra to supra. I get the badge snob point, if it wasn't an issue Lexus wouldnt exist after all. I dont know much about the sales figures but I've seen enough GTR's about to know that people are buying them, like you say who in their right mind, money allowing, wouldn't? I don't know if people would buy a £340,000 toyota, but I think the days of worrying about people buying a £40- 50k one are in question (depending on performance) after the GTR

 

 

 

Good video on the LFA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecwwk6a72Lg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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I hope they don't because they would ruin it to be honest. As has been said for it to be in the same boat as the mkiv it would have to be the flagship but in today's current financial situation and the disappointing ft86 it would most likely be underpowered and look naff. It is the same as milking a game or movie series it just tarnishes the name / brand. They should leave it with the mkiv and put to bed an iconic car.

 

 

 

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Will there ever be another true Supra?

I know its a sad thought, we all would like to see a new supra in the same spirit of the beloved mkiv. I'm thinking though it might not ever happen again.

 

The reason I had this thought is due to three letters. LFA.

 

The mkiv might have borrowed a lot of its engineering from other Toyota and Lexus cars, but it was the best toyota could do at the time. It brought all of its strengths together to design and form one flagship project. A car that everyone at the company could be so proud of.

 

For me the Lexus LFA is in essance the new generation supra. Built with the same commitment as the supra was in it's day. It was the best car that they could make at the time. Also, at around £40,000 it was punching above its weight in bang for your buck terms. The LFA, an amazing machine though it is, it's hard to compare the price of it next to a car like the Nissan GTR. A car far away from it on price, but not performance. You can't really say that the Same now that it punches above its weight the way the supra did.

 

The fact that Toyota's former chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, who I believe was a driving force behind the supra turning out the way it did, was so involved, tragically to his end, in the development of the LFA, shows me that the attention and commitment to producing a new supra, one that would equal or better in performance and price the likes of the GTR would be a Miricle to see today. The reason being that the cost of all the development needed would command such a price that the cost of the car just couldn't be under £50,000.

 

Another thing is how good would a new supra be without people like Naruse working on it.

 

I think it's a shame that Toyota feel they couldn't trust the supra to be the flagship like it once was. Probably due to the fact they were bitten before when people found it hard to stomach the price to buy a Toyota. Nissan have proved it can be done though.

 

I'd love to see a new supra to compete with the GTR, and if it ever happens it would be an incredible achievement but It seems unlikely they would put out a car that can equal or better the LFA for a fraction of the price. (£300+!?)

 

Does anyone get what I mean about the feeling of the LFA kinda ruined everything for the future of the supra?

 

I think it was originally developed with being the next supra and took on a life of its own when costs got so high. I might be completely wrong there, what do u think?

 

P.s I had this thought today after seeing the club twitter account tweet pics of the LFA. Thanks for reading

 

No.

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I've said it before, but I think that the new shape XKR will be the peoples hero. If you love your mkiv's but want something fresher, then I reckon an XKR with some choice mods would be the direction to head.

 

Cant see Toyota building another decent GT car; the NSX, GTO, 300ZX, and Supra technically would hold their own with the german and italian competition of the same era - especially the NSX aestetics wise. Unfortunately, these cars are now relics and times have changed. Japan seems more about everying other than GT cars. Works just fine for me though, I love owning a 20 year old car that can hold its own with most and looks as fresh as the day it rolled of the line - its the Ferrari for the average guy

 

Supra's rule - dont need a new one

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Funny how the LFA took 10 years to develop, the dates tie in. I owned both mkiii & mkiv supras. The mkiii was a cruiser, the mkiv was a slimmed down sports car. Would the LFA be classed a supercar?

 

I saw a while ago Toyota saying the 2+2 sports car could return. Add that to reserving the supra name to be used within a few years it makes you wonder what they are up to.

 

I think there was a good point made, retire the name with grace if you aren't going to have it at the pinnacle any more.

Edited by Marcus GTE
Spelling (see edit history)
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I think the LFA was only meant to a showcase of Toyota/Lexus abilities, I think they took a heavy loss to produce the numbers that they did

 

At £330k, with very exotic technology, I think you'd be well within your right to class it a Hypercar - even if the GTR can keep up with it..

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Talking about badge snobs, BMW owners are raving on about the BMW 335i and to be honest not surprised.

 

One of my colleague is a massive BMW fan boy & I mean massive.

 

Another has a mixed emotion (previous GTR owner, CLK, Impreza P1) but he brought a BMW 335i and I took it for a spin... and my is it impressive. What is even more impressive is how much it feels like a Supra to drive, apart from feeling slightly lighter it feels exactly how a Supra TT does to drive (though a little dumbed down).

 

When I pointed this out to my first colleague, it was outrageous because this is all new technology BMW have been working on.

 

So I pointed out the 3.0 straight six, twin sequential turbo, RWD drive & engine in the front... exactly like a Supra :cool:

 

Though a BPU Supra would still be able to keep it at its bay, but the 335i is VERY tunable (apart from when it breaks!) :D

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There is a mark 5 Supra in devolopment at Toyota. It ment to be on sale in Japan in 2014. And it going to be under the 50K mark.

 

And how could YOU possibly know that exactly?

 

Not much else has been said about as it all hush hush.

 

Again you know something even Toyota doesn't know themselves yet?

 

Here is the full article

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/04/toyota-considering-supra-successor-and-sub-86-sports-car/

 

It clearly states there CONSIDERING it. With the release of the 86 next year and the current testing of a Supercharged prototype 86 I highly doubt there's a MKV already being developed.

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