Despite, going on years now (or previous speculation), the newly relaunched Toyota Supra, and newly introduced BMW Z4 will be completely different animals. Even though they were designed side-by-side, it seems as though the greatest thing they have in common is their timeframe.
Even though they have some shared historical roots, the new Toyota Supra and BMW Z4 are bringing very different elements to the table. The looks of the two new models make that pretty obvious out of the gate — one is going to show up as a roadster, while the other is coming in as coupe. Beyond that, Toyota has claimed that the Toyota Supra will be the sportier model of the two, and will offer the drive a whole different kind of driving experience.
Despite sharing some of the underpinnings of the BMW Z4, Toyota made sure that the Supra would come back as a pure performance vehicle, which is essential to making Toyota Supra fans of the past happy.
Chief Engineer at Toyota, Tetsuya Tada, is making sure everyone knows exactly what the new Supra is made of, which is no surprise since he was the key to the release for the 86 that kept Toyota in the middle class performance market in the meantime. He’s also been the driving force behind the Supra’s comeback.
“From our side, Toyota wanted to make a pure sports car, and BMW has a slightly different direction,” Tada said. “Engine calibration is quite different between the two cars. Even if the hardware is the same in some elements, the calibration is completely different – the driving experience will be very different from the Z4.”
Note, he didn’t say the Toyota Supra was a better car than the BMW Z4, just a different one. We’ll see for ourselves once both cars hit the market, which hopefully won’t be too long from now!