I realize that making multiple posts in the same thread in a row is kind of like texting, being left on read, and continuing to do it... but...
Now that this is all officially official, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this car for various reasons - I can't make sense of it in any scenario. A decade long project turned into a car launched with decade-old specs and I am scratching my head about how THIS is what came of the much hyped BMW/Toyota partnership. It feels like Toyota was the disposal option for BMW's outdated hardware, but didn't get clearance pricing on what they bought.
We heard about the car being co-developed with input from both brands, and that was stated officially via press releases and news announcements. I'm not talking about rumors. However, I am trying to figure out what part of this Toyota had their hands in, aside from the exterior design of the Supra. The platform seems to be BMW, the engine is absolutely a direct leftover from BMW and it's unchanged, so is the transmission. The infotainment system is 100% BMW and so is much of the interior. Did BMW handover the hardware, and then Toyota just tuned their own suspension and design their own exterior, essentially? If so, that makes more sense if this car is basically a recycling bin for BMW that Toyota thought was an easy badge engineering exercise while ringing in the famed "Supra" glory. It feels like BMW said, "Hey Akio, this next Z4 is happening and we've already got a plan, but let us know if you want in," and Toyota said, "Yeah! Lets call it a Supra!"
I really didn't have a problem with this BMW/Toyota partnership because I was expecting that the final results would reap the benefits of both brands. Many were expecting BMW's performance input with Toyota's massaging of engine tuning and reliability. Time will tell with regard to the latter, but even the former is up for debate at this point. I see Toyota's fingerprints nowhere on the powertrain.
I feel like the Subaru/Toyota partnership delivered a more wholesome product that spoke to both brands' capabilities and thinking.
At a time when TNGA has hit its stride with new platforms and engines, I'm struggling to see how a version of GA-L with the V35A-FTS wouldn't have made a lot more sense for Toyota than this partnership. Such a car could have been jointly developed with the 4th gen IS or 2nd gen RC, preserved the Toyota reputation for reliability, remained an in-house project and also pumped out a lot more power. From the outside, we can all make assumptions about what could have been different or better, or what the business case would be, but...
...It's underpowered.
...It's overpriced.
...It's not really a Toyota, so I don't think you can say reliability is on it's side.
The Z4 getting the more powerful tune even seems like proof of Toyota only getting hand-me-downs without much direct input into the project.
Theoretically, if this car came in at 3,700lbs but was packing the 416/442lb-ft TT V6, that would have seemed more true to Supra heritage than what we got. Toyota was hung up on the car absolutely having to have an inline six, and it seems that may be the fact that ruined it. I would have welcomed a change in philosophy (a V6 instead of I6) in the name of progress instead of an overpriced, underpowered, rebadged BMW for the sake of nostalgia.