Toyota Supra name firms

Toyota's all-new supercar – tipped to be previewed sometime this year as a concept car – is almost certain to reprise the famous Supra badge.

Reviving the Supra name that has been used across four generations of Toyota sports cars between 1978 and 2002 – all powered by an inline six-cylinder engine – the next-generation rear-drive sports car will draw on the company's rich performance car heritage.

Tetsuya Tada, Toyota's chief engineer for all sports car programs including the Toyota 86, told motoring.com.au that while the car is still "very secret", he's pushing hard to get the Supra name reinstated.

"No one has really decided the name yet," he said, before admitting the thinking around the new supercar's name, development of which kicked off more than three years ago, was to leverage the Japanese brand's proud sports car history.

"It's exactly the same as the new [Toyota] 86. The [Corolla-based] AE86 was so popular amongst the Japanese and heritage car collectors so we always wanted to use that. It comes down to the same story: Supra has so much history, and it's so loved," he explained.

The ultimate decision over whether the Supra name will be dusted off depends upon Toyota's global chief, Akio Toyoda, with whom Tada has a close relationship.

"Of course the boss has to decide at the very last stage. But we always talk together about it. The decision maker is Akio," said Tada, who previously revealed the new model could take advantage of a sequential gearbox and a turbo-petrol engine with electric augmentation.

The Supra name would ensure membership to the same distinguished coterie as the upcoming Honda NSX, a $450,000 supercar which could blitz the competition when it arrives in Australia later in 2016.

Nissan is another Japanese brand with a famous hero car drawing on a rich heritage, the GT-R, and Tada says the reborn Supra will be a rival for both the GT-R and NSX.

"This next model should be king of sports car for Toyota. It has to be top dog, in speed also," stated Tada-san.

Although he wouldn't be drawn on powertrain specifics or timing for the production car it's almost certainly going to be powered by a high-tech inline six-cylinder engine, which will be shared with development partner BMW along with the car's platform architecture.

"It's a proper sports car," Tada said, "so racetrack also is a very important [development] stage for a new sports car with BMW.

"That is the reason why we chose BMW as a partner – we want performance," he said.

Tada has previously said a 'preview' of the Supra, most likely a radical concept design like Toyota's 2014 FT-1 concept (pictured), will appear this year and hinted that the production car could be deployed two years after that – for a late 2018 reveal.

"It's not a definite but as you remember, regarding the 86, we started showing the concept car around two years before the car was revealed. For the coming new car maybe we do the same way… but not 100 per cent!" he offered.