[supra93]

New Toyota Supra to be sold under Gazoo Racing name, and be offered in Supra, Supra GR, Supra GR Sport and Supra GRMN forms in 2019

Toyota's revived Supra is just weeks away from launch, as the official unveiling is all set for the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The sports car, developed jointly with BMW, won't be sold with Toyota badges, and will instead feature the Gazoo Racing nameplate.

Insiders claim tht the new Supra will come in four different states of tune; as the basic Supra, as a Supra GR, as a Supra GR Sport, and finally as a Supra GRMN. Expect a significant gap in performance and price between the base Supra and the GR sport, with variations in suspension tune also likely.

“The Supra will be by Gazoo,” the performance division, Shigeki Tomoyama, told Auto Express late last year. The news comes after it transpired that the Gazoo Racing team became more heavily involved in the car’s development – after Toyota president Akio Toyoda tested the vehicle and decided it needed to be “more mobile”. Prototype cars have since been given more of an edge to what was a fairly benign initial set-up.

The Supra’s sister vehicle, the BMW Z4, is expected in showrooms next year, but Tomoyama hinted that the Gazoo creation may not arrive until the second half of 2019.

While the BMW will be sold only as a convertible, the Supra will be a fixed-roof coupe. It’s likely that the Gazoo-badged car will use bigger, six-cylinder engines, too.

As the owner of a 600bhp carbon fibre-bodied previous-generation Supra, Gazoo boss Tomoyama said that the new car will need to attract fans of the classic models.

“The new car has to appeal to the existing owners first,” he told us. “The old cars had a straight-six engine, twin turbos and rear-wheel drive; the new car must have the same philosophy.”

There’s a chance Toyota and Gazoo will look to their Le Mans race cars for added hybrid tech. The new model is said to weigh between 1,200kg and 1,500kg, with Gazoo using the BMW M4 Coupe and Porsche 911 as benchmarks.

As with all other GR models, such as the Yaris GRMN, the company will offer an extensive range of aftermarket tuning parts for the new sports car. Prices will be announced closer to the car’s showroom debut.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-new...states-of-tune