Review of the 2020 Toyota Supra GTS in Australia, including price, specs, interior, ride and handling, safety and score.

THE SUPRA has been Toyota’s performance flagship since the 1978 A40 with a 92kW engine, originally based on the Celica coupe but lengthened to accept a 6-cylinder engine instead of a 4-cylinder. The line continued with the A60, A70 and the A80 which was made famous in the Fast and Furious films, before being discontinued in 2002, beginning a long period where Toyota produced no sports car until the Toyota 86 of 2012.

Here we have the Toyota GR Supra A90 GTS – the GR stands for Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s competition arm, the A90 is the model sequence, and there’s two trim levels, GT and our tester, the GTS. We drove the car for a week, and due to COVID-19 restrictions we didn’t do our full test, just around-town errands we’d have to do anyway. 

IN A NUTSHELL: A true sports car that’s also a usable daily driver, but perhaps trading a little hard on the heritage.

 

THE GOOD: A versatile athlete delivering power, handling, liveability and grand tourer ability.

 

THE BAD: Tacky steering wheel, value, no manual, less than ideal track practicality.

The A90 follows the traditional Supra layout of an in-line six-cylinder engine, rear-wheel drive and a coupe body, but loses the rear two seats and a manual transmission option.

The car has been developed with BMW, which developed the same platform into the Z4 convertible. The 6-cylinder twin-scroll turbo engine is good for 250kW, with a promised upgrade to 285kW later in 2020, and 500Nm of torque delivered by an 8-speed automatic transmission via an electronically controlled limited-slip clutch-pack differential to the rear wheels, all of which results in a claimed 0-100km/h sprint of 4.3 seconds.

The suspension is adjustable to normal and sport settings, and dynamically changes according to what the car’s doing. 

The two models are:

For the extra $10,000 you pay for the GTS you get 19-inch wheels, red-painted brake calipers and a rear rotor diameter of 345mm instead of 330mm for the GT, sports accelerator and brakes (which means fake-ish metal coverings), a heads-up display and a JBL sound system. Warranty is the standard Toyota five-year and 160,000km, whichever comes first.

Naturally, it’s rather BMW-esque, with the long row of radio station presets and BMW’s iDrive controller/touchscreen. That’s not a criticism though, as BMW does pretty decent interiors and the infotainment system is quick to respond, easy to read, and clear to understand.

Some of the car’s controls are masked by the steering wheel, notably the lighting buttons, and the trip odo reset button is a tiny black-on-black item on the dash display. The dash itself is mostly rev counter with a digital speedo. The big disappointment is the steering wheel which is a little too large and far too plasticky. If I owned one, I’d get it covered in Alcantra straight away.

The glovebox is small, there’s no centre console, just two drinks holders, and the door pockets are tin. They certainly can’t fit a water bottle, so in-cabin storage is poor. The boot is a liftback and opens up to reveal a relatively small access hatch into a slightly larger boot. At least there are four very solid tie-down points. 

The Supra is a true sports car. The acceleration is rapid, with the 8-speed auto always selecting the right gear and plenty of torque on tap so no silly rev-hunting here. The engine note is throatily purposeful – especially in Sports mode – and you sit low and feel enclosed in the cockpit. The brakes are powerful, the steering is direct, albeit not particularly feelsome, and corner entry, apex and exit can be achieved at surprising speeds thanks to the tyres and suspension, but also the rear diff makes a big difference as it helps rotate the car in and out of bends. I’m bitterly disappointed my test wasn’t able to include any track time at Winton as originally planned, but I have heard of one owner who has run a 1.34 albeit with slightly better tyres – the equivalent Toyota 86 time would be 1.43-1.45.

Rear visibility is terrible, thanks to the small rear window and massive B-pillars. However, the rearview camera is large and clear, and the wing mirrors are also reasonably sized so slow-speed manoeuvring isn’t too bad, although the 10.4m turning circle is large for the car’s size. The steering is a mere 2.1 turns lock-to-lock.

Like most low-volume cars, the Supra hasn’t been ANCAP-tested and probably won’t be. However, you can assume Toyota have done their usual good job on the safety, and they did manage to get a 5-star rating for the 86, unlike Ford’s efforts with the Mustang. There is a decent amount of active safety –  AEB, active cruise, front/rear parking sensors and a high-quality rear parking camera and a tyre pressure monitor.

There’s quite a few, if we limit ‘alternatives’ to rear-drive sports cars. The closest equivalent would be the Nissan 370Z, also six-cylinder, Japanese and with a long heritage. From Lexus, there is the RC300 and RC350, and Ford offers the 2.3 and 5.0 Mustangs, not to mention Toyota’s own 86 and even Mazda’s MX-5. 

And there’s also the Lotus Elise, Alfa Romeo 4C and Alpine A110, but they’re far more hard-edged than the versatile Supra which can handle long-distance grand touring duties as well as mix it on a racetrack.