The 2020 Toyota Supra has been on sale for about a week. Now that customer-owned cars are rolling on the streets, we can get a definitive answer about how the Supra really does perform.
That Racing Channel is the first, that we know of, to test a purchased Toyota Supra on a quarter-mile drag. The guys drove 700 miles from the dealer’s lot straight to the drag strip to make the first run with a 100% stock car.
2020 Toyota Supra is not a 10-second car, at least not stock
The best quarter-mile time they got was 12.518 seconds at 109.7 mph.
The limiting factor was traction – there was a lot of wheel spin with one of the launches nearly sending the car into the wall. Perhaps the older generation Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires have a slight disadvantage versus the newer 4 S, which come with most high profile cars these days.
So, first thing in the morning, they equipped the Supra with wider and stickier tires in the back – a set of Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S.
As a result, the Supra was significantly more stable and consistent, however, performance barely improved. The best time they got with the drag tires was 12.516 seconds at 108.9 mph.
Unfortunately, it started raining on the track, so they had to call it a day, but it didn’t look like the car could go any faster as is.
Like they say – this will decimate all, after you put about 15 grand in it, or more. Only, we don’t know whether to “overnight” parts in from Japan or Germany.
How much power and torque does a Toyota Supra really make?
Next, The Racing Channel put the car on the dyno, and surprisingly, the numbers were lower than we expected – 324 hp and 365 lb-ft of torque.
Toyota has rated the engine at 335 hp and 365 lb-ft of torque at the flywheel.
Before any torque is delivered to the wheels, it must pass through the transmission, driveshaft and rear differential which generally consume 10-20% of the engine’s power. So, it’s not like Toyota lied to their customers.
However, in the weeks prior to the Supra going on sale, a number of magazines and media outlets published dyno numbers which were significantly higher:
- CarThrottle got 376 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque.1
- Car&Driver got 339 hp and 427 lb/ft of torque.2
- MotorTrend got 332 hp and 387 lb/ft of torque.3
Of course, we have to acknowledge that all four tests were done with different vehicles, on different dynamometers, atmospheric conditions, and geographic locations. Each of these factors can throw off the measurement in any direction.
However, we also cannot ignore that all Supras which Toyota gave to the press produced significantly more torque than the car purchased by The Racing Channel.
Could Toyota be giving journalists tuned versions of the Supra so it scores better in their reviews?
We’re not pointing fingers yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye on this story as we gather more data.
Sources: