Toyota Supra

The Toyota Supra was a sports car/grand tourer 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.[3] Starting in mid-1986, the Supra (in its third generation, MKIII) 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 Toyota 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 2000GT's M engine. All four generations of Supra produced have an inline 6-cylinder engine.

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 MKIII 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 the 1989 redesign when Toyota switched to its current oval company logo. Some of the most notable appearances include the Gran Turismo and Need for Speed series of video games and the 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious.

Mark I

The first generation Supra was based largely upon the Toyota Celica liftback, but was longer by 5.1 in (129.5 mm). The doors and rear section stayed the same length as Celica but rear panels differed. The most important change was the swap to an Inline-6 instead of the stock Celica's 4-cylinder engine. Toyota's original plan for the Supra at this time was to make it a competitor to the very popular Datsun (now Nissan) Z-car.

Mark II
In 1982, 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 stuck. 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 louvers popularly associated with the Z car.

Mark III

In the middle of 1986, Toyota was ready to release its next version of the Supra. The official model year is designated as 1986.5. The bonds between the Celica and the Supra were cut; they were now two completely different models. The Celica changed to front wheel drive, while the Supra kept its rear wheel drive platform. Though the Mark II and Mark III had similar designs, the engine was updated to a more powerful 3.0 200 hp (150 kW) inline 6. Although only available in naturally aspirated trim in 1986.5, a turbocharged version of the engine was introduced in the 1987 model year. The Supra was now related mechanically to the Toyota Soarer for the Japanese market.

Mark IV

With the fourth generation of the Supra, Toyota took a big leap in the direction of a more powerful sports car. Production started in December 1992 with only 20 models, but started mass production in April 1993. The new Supra was completely redesigned, with rounded body styling and featured two new engines: a naturally aspirated 2JZ-GE producing 220 hp (164 kW) @5800 rpm and 210 lb·ft (285 N·m) @4800 rpm of torque and a twin turbocharged 2JZ-GTE making 280 ps (206 kW) and 318 ft·lbf (430 N·m) of torque for the Japanese version. For the export model (America/Europe) Toyota upgraded the Supra turbo's engine (larger turbochargers, bigger fuel injectors, etc.). This increased the power output to 320 hp (239 kW) @5600 rpm and 315 lb·ft (427 N·m) @4000 rpm.