Marc UrbanoCar and Driver
Lap Time: 2:59.3
Class: LL2 | Base: $51,985 | As Tested: $56,680
Power and Weight: 382 hp • 3402 lb • 8.9 lb/hp
Tires: Michelin Pilot Super Sport, F:255/35ZR-19 (96Y) ★ R: 275/35ZR-19 (100Y) ★
We like to imagine Toyota engineers, product planners, and marketers were clinking Sapporos at a karaoke bar celebrating the completion of the 2020 Supra when inspiration struck for the 2021 model. Was it someone’s stirring rendition of Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” that inspired them to make a better, faster, and stronger Supra just one year after the sports car debuted? It had to have been.
The changes for 2021 lop 2.1 seconds off the Supra 3.0’s time. Credit the additional 47 horsepower from the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six. On the front straight, the car’s 382 ponies are good for 144.3 mph, 5.1 mph higher than the peak speed achieved by last year’s car.
Marc UrbanoCar and Driver
The better and stronger bits include a chassis that’s been tweaked to increase stability with a front end stiffened by additional bracing. While the handling remains playful enough to allow you to rotate the car by trail braking or by impatiently stabbing at the throttle on corner exit, the better part comes in when you turn into a corner. The redone Supra hunkers down, tracks true, and won’t surprise you with gratuitous oversteer like last year’s car. That stability helps you build the confidence to work the Supra harder, at least in one critical spot. At the blind, off-camber, downhill, pucker-inducing, does-this-qualify-as-an-at-work-accident left-hander that follows the Climbing Esses, the new Supra picks up an extra 6.9 mph. That one corner helps shave about a quarter-second from last year’s lap.
While the updates dialed out some body roll, we’re glad that enough was left in to allow the Toyota to bob over surface imperfections and lean through curves. While not trendy, that bit of body motion delivers seat-of-the pants feedback that makes this car more fun and more alive than many other sports cars.
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Source link
