FCLegends #13 – Toyota Supra Twin Turbo (1993-2002)
The Supra name has been associated with rear-drive straight six Toyotas since the late ’70s, and it was Toyota’s first ever turbocharged car in 1980. But it was the Mk4, first appearing in 1993, which quickly became a tuning legend and its popularity shows no signs of waning.
With 320bhp, a 0-60 time in the mid fours, and a 175mph unrestricted top speed, the Supra is a weapon straight out of the box, but what has made the Mk4 Twin Turbo most famous is the huge tuneability of its 3ltr 2JZ-GTE engine. The standard twin turbo design is a sequential setup which was revolutionary at the time, but which, when tuning the car, can be quickly removed and replaced by a big single turbo setup.
The Supra’s 2JZ lump is famous for being the engine that made 1,000bhp on standard internals a reality. Some tuned road legal Supras manage 7sec quarter miles and almost 250mph in the standing mile, over 40mph faster than even the Bugatti Veyron can hit in the same distance – all while using the standard six-speed manual gearbox.
In the mid to late ’90s, we first heard about the amazing tuned Supras in Japan, and their incredible power and speed was nothing like we’d ever seen before. This tuning influence soon spread, and now big power tuned Supras are almost commonplace over here.
The Supra is a big car, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s not the straight line weapon many have labelled it; there’s a lot more to the Supra’s capabilities than pure power. At 1.5 tonnes it’s heavy, but even as standard can pull a huge 0.95 lateral G when cornering, and its superb brakes make it one of the quickest-stopping production cars ever made – beating all but some of the most recent supercars.
In standard form, calling it Toyota’s supercar may be stretching the term, but it’s certainly not a supercar when tuned, it’s MUCH faster than that…
SEE MORE FC LEGENDS
