We’ve seen our fair share of last-call special cars cashing in on FOMO over the past few years – think Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, Volkswagen GTI 380, and to a lesser extent, the Porsche 718 Spyder RS. All brilliant stuff, a big party before Euro 7 emissions regulations were supposed to come in, and now it’s Toyota’s turn with the GR Supra A90 Final Edition.
Only 300 examples of these ultimate BMW-powered Supra coupes will be sold, meaning it will take an enormous amount of luck to get one. Granted, an enormous amount of work went into making it the ultimate GR Supra, with every aspect of the car getting at least a once-over.
A new intake, exhaust system, and ECU map give it 429 horsepower and 420 lb.-ft. of torque, 47 more horsepower, and 52 more lb.-ft. than the regular Supra. The suspension features KW adjustable coilovers, new bushings, new anti-roll bars, and revised alignment. All the supporting mods you could really want complete the package, from aero tweaks to oiling system upgrades to Recaro carbon fiber bucket seats, and the only gearbox on tap is a six-speed manual.
Add it all up, and the GR Supra A90 Final Edition sounds just about perfect, which explains why I was disappointed it wouldn’t be coming to North America. Key word here being “was,” because Toyota just unveiled European pricing that almost made me fall out of my chair.
Let’s say you live within reasonable proximity of the Nürburgring and are looking at getting a new sports coupe for joyous Touristenfahrten day trips. Well, if you want a Toyota GR Supra A90 Final Edition, you’re looking at a price tag of €142,800, or about $155,416 at current conversion rates. Considering that the standard three-liter GR Supra starts at €73,250 in Germany, we’re talking about a 94.9 percent price hike over a regular Supra for this limited-run model.
As far as state-of-the-art sports cars you can row your own gears in, the Porsche 911 Carrera T starts at €141,700 in Germany. Sure, you probably aren’t leaving the dealership without adding at least a few options, but considering the strong resale value of a 911 and the added practicality of zero-cost rear seats, and it seems a lot more rational than a €142,800 Supra.
Perhaps Germany’s iconic home-grown sports car is a bit too cookie-cutter, or doesn’t have enough Japanese engineering for your tastes. Well, if you still want some Toyota DNA in your six-figure sports car, you can get a Lotus Emira with a supercharged 3.5-liter Toyota V6 and a manual gearbox for €112,490, and then have about €30,000 to splash on fuel, tires, and brake fluid.
Love the supercar looks of the Emira, but want even more performance? A C8 Corvette Z06 starts at €159,655 in Germany, and while that is one entire Dacia Sandero more than this limited-run Supra, high-revving flat-plane crank V8s are rarified air these days. A GR Supra shouldn’t be within subcompact car distance of something like the Z06, but here we are.
With this sort of pricing, I can see why Toyota decided that the GR Supra A90 Final Edition wasn’t the move for North America. It’s a difficult sell, and a reminder of what helped push the golden era Japanese performance cars of the ’90s into extinction. Sometimes, no matter how finely tuned a car is, it can be too expensive for its own good. I can’t help but get a strong feeling that’s exactly what’s happened here.
Top graphic credit: Toyota
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As the life cycle of the A90 Supra comes to a close, I realize that I just wanted it be a bigger brother to the GR86. The Lexus RC isn’t quite that either but it’s closer in philosophy. Maybe we’ll get that for the next one.
Seeing what Toyota and Nissan did with the Supra and 400Z is beyond disappointing.
They didn’t make enough of them so they’re outrageously expensive, and when they start breaking down in the next 5-10 years parts will be impossible to replace and they’ll eventually disappear from the road entirely.
Maybe they’ll come back later as an EV, maybe they won’t, but it’s crazy how terrible they handled them.
Toyota’s approach to enthusiast cars is so damn cynical. I really find it frustrating. Between openly saying their goal was to make “one too few” GRCs, the endless stream of meaningless nostalgia driven special editions, their horrible allocation system that’s a wink and nudge at dealers to mark stuff up, etc.
“Here’s our SUPER SPECIAL SUPRA! It has a mild tune, an intake and exhaust and OF COURSE IT’S MANUAL ONLY SO IT’S FOR SUPER HARDCORE PEOPLE ONLY! It can be yours for twice the price of a regular Supra that you totally couldn’t modify yourself!”
Fuck off. This car isn’t THAT special. It’s just a rebadged Z4. Put an S58, all wheel drive, and one of the M differentials in it and maybe you can get away with charging 100,000 Euros for it. But you could do all the engine mods yourself for like 5 grand, if that.
It’s not all bad. Lower-price options exist, such as the GR86 and the GR Corolla. And while we can complain about the price points there’s no denying those are appealing, honest cars.
As for the Supra FF it’s a little more complicated than you make it out to be. Toyota used the entire rear subframe of the GT4 car as well as a wide variety of parts from that vehicle. The suspension all new, I believe. Sure, you might be able to replicate one for less money, the *time* required to do so would probably make it a wash.
It’s a little like a NISMO GT-R in that it’s frightfully expensive except for those wealthy enough to want a track-ready turnkey but don’t want to spend the much larger sum for an actual race car.
Part of the reason why the A90 (or J29 really) has been so expensive is because Toyota didn’t have anything on hand to use. The drivetrain’s all G29, and any changes have to be run by BMW and negotiated with BMW parts suppliers. This is getting even further away from the BMW hierarchy and so things get even more expensive. The Euro/Yen exchange rate is also kinda stiff right now, which means this problem gets even worse. This isn’t really like the ’90s where Japan’s economy collapsed — twice — and made dedicated higher end sports cars unfeasible.
All of this could’ve been avoided if Toyota had just developed a six cylinder version of the Toyota A25 like people had originally speculated. The J29 and A25 were being developed at the same time, and the engine could’ve been used in the Highlander, Tundra, and Landcruiser to offset emissions costs. I just don’t know.
The A90 is just so unbelievably whelming. Out of all the sports cars of all time it’s certainly one of them. The JDM mystique Toyota has tried to cash in on and use to build hype for the car has been cringe the entire time.
I’d rather have a C8 and it’s not particularly close. I said it and I mean. Later, nerds!
*peels off with Van Halen and happy V8 noises blasting*
I’d rather have an old A70 Supra 3.0i than any new car. At least the A70 won’t get in it’s own way and can’t be fucked over via some corporate shenanigans regarding trademarks and parts licensing.
From a product development standpoint, it was always super unlikely a BMW platform with a Toyota engine was going to happen. It’s preferable that Toyota did its own thing with the GR Corolla as well as inject some life back into the GR86/BRZ rather than waste time convincing customers that a BMW with a Toyota engine was somehow enough of a Toyota to be desirable.
The outcome isn’t great but Toyota didn’t lose much on the deal, especially compared to the expensive halo project that was the LF-A.
This is a great opportunity for BMW to create a Z4 coupe successor.
I was holding out hope of a “GRMN” Supra of some sort with the S58, but I understand BMW for gatekeeping that engine.
It’s tough because I love the look of the Supra but an M2 is much better value across the board and more practical too.
I’ve also always hated the steering wheel of the Supra. Costs thousands to swap out. High end cars haven’t had airbags that large for 15-20 years now.
As Thomas so quickly pointed out – people do realize the Emira exists… for 30K less, right?! Good grief, how is that even a choice?
The Supra is sort of like caviar. It sounds interesting. It seems like something I’d like. It’s sort of needlessly expensive.
Yet every time I try it I remember why I didn’t like it in the first place.
If a German or Italian brand was selling a performance coupe with these same specs at this same price the enthusiast community writ large would be losing their minds and trampling grannies just for the opportunity to pay a $50k markup on one.
Are people trampling grannies to buy 911s or Maserati GranTurismos?
The $150,000 sport coupe market isn’t exactly barren.
Remember when Toyota rationalized all those unnecessary fake scoops and vents by saying they would be used in future, higher performance versions? Well this is supposedly the final, presumably most powerful version, and some of those vents still appear to be blocked off.
This was my immediate first thought as well. As if anyone even needed to call bullshit on that line the first time around.
It must be “highlight the ugly, overpriced, Europe-only BMWs” day here today.
And it still looks like an ugly, random pile of humps, bumps, and lumps.
That’s the price of the M4 CSL
Or an M3/4 Competition with enough left over for a spare Miata.