2021 Toyota Supra…A lot of thumbs up!

Supra is a household name to motorsports enthusiasts, perhaps to the more “advanced” ones. This Toyota vehicle ceased production in 1998, and the fourth generation of the sports car ended in 2002.

Nostalgia has never adjudicated among those who knew the Supra, and Toyota, which frequently teaches coexistence and collaboration with other manufacturers, approached BMW to jointly resurrect this model after 18 years of absence. Thus, in mid-2019, the fifth and current generation of the Toyota Supra began to be marketed as a 2020 model, a Supra with such a taste for sausage, pretzel and German beer, which has not been without controversy.

Puritans disapprove of this Toyota having the same engine, transmission and platform as the BMW Z4, or being produced in Austria alongside its German counterpart. The most valid opinions are those of the few who have had the opportunity -fortune I would say- to test the two cars one after the other.

The consensus among them is that the very fact that these two sports cars share so many genes and cannot feel more deferential is cause for astonishment. Toyota and BMW have acted like two good chefs who, with the same ingredients, can present very different dishes in texture and flavor.

The Toyota Supra and the BMW Z4 are different cars for different buyers. As far as I'm concerned, I can only leave here my impressions of the Supra, which continues to amaze in 2021, presenting for the first time a version of the sports car with only four cylinders.

From outside and inside

I'm almost used to it now. When you start a new car every week, it is common to find curious people in parking lots, gas stations or even neighbors who take a look and even ask about the car you drive. With the Toyota Supra it has been extraordinary.

The number of onlookers, and most impressively, those who have nodded and given their thumbs up at traffic lights, has been amazing. Part of the reason may be the yellow paint job on my test Supra. They call it Nitro Yellow, but it would be disingenuous not to admit that this car has impressive spirits.

The design is created by the house of Toyota, and there are plenty of proportionate dimensions and so many curves that it would make Jennifer Lopez jealous. The curved lines flow over the hood, up to the interesting double bubble roof and along the sides, where a more robust line starts at the bottom and resolves to the rear wheel with a cooling duct. There are many of these functional and other decorative details in the Supra, but all in my opinion well positioned to enhance the sportiness of the design.

Looking at the car from a low angle allows you to enjoy its appeal, with a taut shape and interesting details, such as the dovetail spoiler at the rear. I could extend much more about the wonderful design of the Supra, but the many little fingers above that I found on the street are the maximum testimony of its visual excellence.

Inside the Supra we discover an elegant interior that is rather linear, contradictory to the curvaceous exterior forms. It has quite a bit of BMW, with which it shares the climate controls and other buttons. Most of the materials are high-end with metallic trim and soft plastics.

The manually adjustable comfort seats are low, and forward visibility is excellent, not to the sides or rear. Those huge roof pillars that help give this car such fascinating styling are also great at eliminating visibility. To make matters worse, blind-spot monitoring and other useful features like rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, and parking sensors aren't standard, and are included in the Safety and Technology package of more than three thousand dollars.

Unsurprisingly, the Supra isn't a particularly versatile car. The storage space in the cabin is scarce, something that is common in this type of car, as well as a trunk that is also small, although adequately spacious to carry luggage for two people, or several shopping bags.

Equipment and safety

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The supra's infotainment system is an aging version of BMW's iDrive. The screen is 8.8 inches, which isn't bad, but the interface layout is complicated and difficult to navigate. The screen is touch screen and there are also buttons on the console, which is appreciated. In the 2021 Supra, those of us who are on the Android side navigate without luck, but not Apple CarPlay lovers who can even connect wirelessly.

Standard safety options include Forward Collision Alert with Pedestrian Detection, Emergency Braking, Auto High Beams, and Lane Departure Alert with Lane-Keeping Assist. They leave on the menu so that adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, parking sensors, rear traffic alert and the HUD or projection screen are added at an additional cost.

On the road

Toyota's main argument for joining BMW in the execution of the Supra was the impossibility of finding an inline six-cylinder engine like the one manufactured by the Germans. When deciding to present a four-cylinder turbo version this year, there would be plenty of options, but the most logical decision has been to continue the deal with BMW and use a 2.0 turbo with 255 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque manufactured by the Germans.

The six-cylinder version makes 382 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque, and this might seem like a high point when we compare the two cars. It is true that the difference in power is appreciable in numbers, but not so much in real life. The four-cylinder Supra is more than 200 pounds lighter, and that's a major difference.

Visiting those curvy, low-traffic back roads we like to push cars to the limit, we found the suspension damping to be stellar, and aided by a 50/50 weight distribution, we allowed ourselves to get into speeds in the corners that would be more natural for faster, bigger and more expensive cars.

The main crossroads when comparing the two available Supra models—the more powerful 3.0 or the one we tested with almost 130 less horsepower—is their handling on the road. It might seem like the cheapest Supra with two cylinders and some less drive hardware would be at a severe disadvantage. Turns out not. The rather quick test I did of the Toyota Supra 3.0 is long gone in my memory, but I have turned to a few colleagues who have been able to compare them one after the other, and there is a good consensus: the driving experience is more accessible and even comforting in the Supra. less powerful, although it may not seem so.

In the end, to allay concerns, the Toyota Supra 2.0 is nearly $8,000 cheaper, and they're virtually indistinguishable from one another. There's no cosmetic embarrassment in the four-cylinder Supra, and an aftermarket treatment with upgraded intake and exhaust and an upgrade to the engine computer will likely bump power up to 300 horsepower, though you'll eventually lose the car's warranty in the process.