New Toyota Supra confirmed for Australia

The new Toyota Supra is confirmed for Australia. And it will launch the Japanese car-maker’s GAZOO Racing (GR) performance brand Down Under.

After a drawn-out period of maybes, Toyota Australia has officially confirmed the new German-Japanese sports coupe will go on sale in Australia in the second half of 2019 -- Q3 to be (sort of) exact.

The fifth-generation Supra -- officially codename the A90 -- was developed in conjunction with the new BMW Z4.

It features a BMW-sourced turbocharged 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine in top performing models and will also be the first car to wear Toyota GAZOO Racing (GR) branding Down Under.

Toyota has confirmed outputs in excess of 220kW and 450Nm for the six-cylinder Supra and “a projected 0-100km/h time of well under five seconds”. There are no details yet on the expected four-cylinder model.

Details on the rest of the rear-drive mechanicals include a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential as standard – at least on the range-topping version.

The option of a six-speed manual a la BMW’s Z4 could be added pending consumer feedback, Toyota insiders said.

BMW recently unveiled its take on the new platform at Pebble Beach in August and both the 2019 BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra will be built at Magna Steyr’s facility in Graz, Austria.

However, the new Toyota coupe was developed separately from the BMW roadster. Toyota’s European operation had responsibility for the car’s final engineering specification.

While ‘hardware’ is shared with the BMW, the Supra’s suspension, engine and gearbox tune are bespoke, Toyota says.

The 2019 Toyota Supra has a shorter wheelbase than the 86 but sits a significantly wider wheel tracks front and rear. Toyota claims the new car also has a lower centre of gravity and perfect 50:50 static weight distribution.

The inline six-cylinder sits entirely within the wheelbase, making the car a front/mid-engine configuration.

This was one of the packaging changes Toyota ‘negotiated’ at the Z4/Supra project’s kick off. The Japanese team led by the ‘father’ of the 86, Tetsuya Tada also asked for the A-pillar base to be moved forward, creating a ‘faster’ windscreen angle.

The new A90 Toyota Supra features adaptive damping on top-spec versions. A passive suspended model will be offered in some markets, although it’s not clear whether Australia will be one.

The Supra debuts the Toyota Gazoo Racing brand Down Under. GR replaces the dormant TRD (Toyota Racing Developments).

Toyota says GR’s role is “to support Toyota’s development of ‘ever better’ road cars, forging new technologies and solutions under the extreme conditions of motorsport”.

The company has already displayed a GR-fettled concept Supra racer, which recently visited Australia and was presented to dyed in the wool Supra fans at Toyota Australia’s HQ in Port Melbourne.

At the launch of the new Corolla hatch recently, Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley talked up the promise of the GR brand. In Japan, GR-enhanced versions of key models are already in showrooms.

Much talked-about hot hatch versions of the Corolla and Yaris are also expected to debut under the GR banner.

Hanley also confirmed that any high-performance versions of Toyota’s top-selling HiLux would also be badged GR models.

“It [GR] would include HiLux if we were to do a [hotter] HiLux,” he told motoring.cm.au.

Toyota has been drip-feeding information about the new Supra for months, and it’s expected to make its official global public debut – without camouflage -- at the Detroit motor show in January.

Click here to read our first drive of the new Toyota Supra in pre-production prototype form.