Once the A90 Toyota Supra made its debut, it didn’t take long at all for tuners to try their hand at giving the new Japanese coupe a lot more horsepower, particularly in tried and true engine-swap fashion. The A90 is set to undergo its own factory-original gym routine, however, with more potent engine variants and more performance as a result, according to Autoblog.
The 340 PS/500 Nm launch version is merely the beginning of the A90 Supra’s journey, Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada told Autoblog. “With a sports car, the promise is to offer more performance with each additional version,” Tetsuya said. On top of that, a new version of the Supra can be expected nearly every year. Its sister car, the G29 BMW Z4 is also available with the same engine, and the same outputs.
No joy for fans hoping for a stick-shift A90 Supra, however, as the chief engineer has directed these potential buyers elsewhere within the Toyota line-up. “Customers who want a manual should choose a Toyota 86,” he said. Last September, Supra assistant chief engineer Masayuki Kai said that a manual version of the A90 Supra has been developed, and was (at that point) being prepared for right-hand-drive markets.
An open-topped version of the latest Supra is unlikely, too, given its shared underpinnings with the G29 BMW Z4. “The relationship between the Supra and the Z4 resembles the relationship between the Porsche Cayman and Boxster,” Tada noted. Though the Japanese coupe and German roadster share underpinnings, development for each model have largely taken their own directions since 2014, Kai said.
The Supra and the Z4 are also differentiated in their respective approaches to configurability; the Japanese coupe offers just two modes, while the German roadster comes with a wider variety including two transmission map settings. Given that the Supra will gain performance with each iteration, how will Toyota achieve this? “We have many ideas,” Tetsuya said to the website. What methods do you think are in the works, dear readers?
-paultan