The Toyota Supra is a sports car/grand tourer that was produced by Toyota Motor Company from 1979 to 2002. The styling of the Toyota Supra was derived from the Toyota Celica, but it was both longer and wider. Starting in mid-1986, the Supra (in its third generation, Mark III) became its own model and was no longer based on the Celica. In turn, Toyota also stopped using the prefix Celica and began just calling the car Supra. Due to the similarity and past of the Celica's name, it is frequently mistaken for the Toyota Supra, and vice versa.
The Supra also traces much of its roots back to the Toyota 2000GT with the main instance being its engine. The first three generations were offered with a direct descendant to the Toyota Crown's and 2000GT's M engine. All four generations of Supra produced have an inline 6-cylinder engine. Interior aspects were also similar, as was the chassis code "A".
Along with this name and car Toyota also included its own logo for the Supra. It is derived from the original Celica logo, being blue instead of orange. This logo was used until January 1986, when the Mark III Supra was introduced. The new logo was similar in size, with orange writing on a red background, but without the dragon design. That logo, in turn, was on Supras until 1991 when Toyota switched to its current oval company logo. (the dragon logo was a Celica logo regardless of what color it was. It appeared on the first two generations of the Supra because they were officially Toyota Celicas. The dragon logo was used for the Celica line until it too was discontinued.)
In 1998, Toyota ceased sales of the Supra in the United States and in 2002 Toyota officially stopped production of the Supra in Japan.
As an iconic sports car, the Supra has appeared in numerous video games, movies, music videos and TV shows. Some of the most notable appearances include the Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, and Midnight Club series of video games and the 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious.
For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Toyota Supra
A recent acquisition from old442dude (thanks Eric!) this little Supra joined my collection at this past weekend's Keystone CARnival. Ignore the "turbo" on the hood as this generation Supra was not available with a turbo from the factory (though there were turbo kits available aftermarket). Turbo was a big deal in the '80s and diecast manufacturers from Summer to Hot Whhels quickly slapped "turbo" tampos on their models.
In 1981, Toyota completely redesigned the Celica Supra as well as the entire Celica lineup. In Japan, they were known as Celica XX, but everywhere else the Celica Supra name was used. Still being based around the Celica platform, there were several key differences, most notably the design of the front end and fully retractable pop-up headlights. Other differences would be the inline-6 still present in the Supra instead of the inline-4 as well as an increase in length and wheel base to conform with the overall larger engine. Toyota's continued market competition with Nissan is shown by the Supra's use of a rear hatch sun shade to avoid the louvres popularly associated with the Z car. Due to an increase in the Supra's width, it was no longer regarded as a "compact" under Japanese dimension regulations.
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