I stopped caring about the Supra program the moment I heard it will be a BMW chassis and BMW powertrain. All those who believed in the obviously false 'insider information' on 'specific tune' or 'iron block' are simply delusional. They should just ask a simple question: if Chevrolet called Ferrari to build them a mid-engine Corvette, and put their fancy F1 gearbox and V12 engine in it, and by the way sell it for $100k, how would Ferrari respond? "F off. "
There is just no chance in hell BMW would allow their latest and greatest in a competitor's car which will be sold at a lower price. I am not surprised at all the engine is a standard B58 unit with 335hp and the ZF 8 speed. Toyota is at BMW's mercy in this partnership, and they are just asking for humiliation by stating 'we cannot justify a sports car program without collaborating with someone else'. And that from the mouth of the richest car company in the world. Did Ford ask FCA to share the Hemi engine so they can make a Mustang Hellcat? Did Chevy even think about asking Ferrari to help them building the mid-engine Corvette? Heck, even the 'flop of the decade' NSX was completely original and actually uses state-of-the-art technology derived from Honda's racing program. What does Toyota has to offer on the Supra? They keep touting how well the chassis is tuned, are they trying to make an impression they are a tuner shop? It's not their car. They also keep saying they parted way with BMW long ago to somehow show the originality of the Supra, but how is that a good thing? Doesn't that mean the specs for BMW-supplied parts are locked in a long time ago and are thus obsolete in 2019?
Toyota usually doesn't care about press coverage unless it's quality or safety related because most of their products sell themselves. But sports cars do need good press to be successful. How many reports have you seen calling it 'the BMW Supra'? See the problem here? When you, as a maker of grocery-getters and haven't built a sports car in two decades, ask for somebody who has a huge reputation in the sports car world to build you a sports car, who would people give credit to?
To be clear, I will not question the engineering aspect of the car. I still couldn't understand how they manage to pull off a 50:50 weight distribution and lower CoG than the 86 using literally the worst powertrain layout possible. For that, I give them full credit. I will also not question it being a nice sports car with a good balance of daily drivability and raw track performance. But that is not the point here. The program is very badly managed and didn't deliver what they really need to. They made the terrible mistake of waiting too long to 'justify the program' and ended up with an idea that didn't really work. And to make it worse the program fell into a development hell with delays. And during this process they missed the opportunity and is launching the Supra among a recession in car and coupe sales.
Now just think about it, six years ago they decided to put the FT-1 concept into production. At that time what did they have in development? A promising high strength RWD platform, a twin-turbocharged V6 engine (the claim 'Supra must have Inline-6' is laughable, how many people are complaining that the R-35 GT-R had a V6?) with at least 300kW and is compact enough to be packaged into a FMR layout, a ten speed automatic transmission, and all of these come with cost savings from a revolutionary concept that goes beyond part sharing and lean manufacturing. They literally have every component needed to make a good sports car that could be ready in five years.
It's what the Supra could have been that pains me, though to be honest, I don't really care. I couldn't buy one in my country anyway.
It turned out to be true.
