This review has been updated with test results.

Tetsuya Tada, the 2020 Toyota Supra's chief engineer, can be cagey. He shrewdly avoids being nailed down about the range of the car's electrically assisted variable-ratio steering rack or its engine's peak boost. He won't say if this Supra is quicker around a track than the Porsche 718 Cayman S, which was its primary development benchmark. And he tells a cautious story about the relationship with BMW that allowed this iconic Toyota sports car to exist again, 21 years after the death of the Mark IV Supra.

HIGHS: Draws the driver fully into the experience, quicker than its power rating lets on, good value.

That the fifth-generation Supra is a proper sports car, however, lies in clear relief against the uncertainty of a few details. We drove the car at Summit Point Motorsports Park's Shenandoah Circuit in West Virginia, asking much of its chassis, brakes, and powertrain over a day of merciless lapping. Those laps reveal that battles were won by the right people during development and that Toyota is once again taking the sports car seriously. Spoiler alert: This review will not mention popular, if dreadful, movie franchises or aging, overweight Toyota inline-six engines.

A Controversial Union

This Supra's rollout has been shrouded in a cloud of perceived compromise by internet philosophers since it was announced that it would share its platform with BMW's Z4 convertibles. The Supra loyal weren't shy in expressing their indignation about the union, claiming that a Supra without a manual transmission—gasp!—could never be a true Supra and that a co-developed car was destined to be viewed by history as nothing more than a Toyota badge slapped onto a BMW.

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They weren't completely wrong. Considering that the Supra uses a BMW engine and that its transmission, dampers, and steering rack are shared with the Z4, Tada-san's claim that its fundamentals weren't just thrust upon Toyota is hard to believe. Still, BMW's B58, a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, produces 335 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque and is undeniably well suited to the Supra—or any sports car—especially when paired with ZF's eight-speed automatic, the only available transmission. And disagree as you might with the B58's origin—and the origins of much of the structure surrounding it—at least Toyota considers the inline-six a no-compromise item for any Supra. Indeed, according to Tada-san, it's the entire motivation behind the partnership. (However, there also is a four-cylinder Supra variant that may make its way to the United States.) An electronically controlled limited-slip differential with the ability to vary lock from zero to 100 percent is part of the program. And, of course, the Supra uses BMW's front strut and rear multilink suspensions. Picking a partner in car building is a lot like picking a partner in life. And Toyota could have done worse than BMW.

A Driving Tool

Viewed through the lens of modern sports cars, the Supra's all-steel structure appears exactly as it is: dated. And speaking of viewing, don't plan on doing much of it through the coupe's tiny rear quarter-windows. Lane changes are a mirror-reliant endeavor. Also, consider that the Supra's body is more than three inches wider than the Toyota 86's, yet it offers less shoulder room and feels substantially smaller inside. But there's subtlety at work in the compromise. The modest interior space—the long of torso will graze the headliner when wearing a helmet—was a decision made to yield the desired structural stiffness. Much of the Supra's structural reinforcement comes from its floor. The coupe's wide sills hurt ingress and egress but help make the Supra's chassis more than twice as stiff as the 86's.

LOWS: Cramped interior, limited rearward visibility, German accent.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

That stiffness matters on the track, where we squared up a curb under heavy braking and bottomed the Supra's right-front suspension. Adaptive dampers helped muffle the blow, which should have handily reshaped our corner entry, not to mention the wheel. Instead, there was just the noise of the impact. The Supra is all fast twitches in tight corners, able to wrench itself into the driver's chosen path and erupt out of bends like a manic terrier. Tada-san claims it's the shortest-wheelbase, widest-track production car in the world. We say the Supra's abbreviated footprint yields a superb willingness to pivot. We recorded 1.07 g's on the skidpad, which is in the ballpark with cars wearing much more specialized rubber.

Sixty miles per hour arrives in only 3.8 seconds and the quarter-mile is gone in 12.3 at 113 mph. A fat slab of torque doesn't hurt the corner-exit cause, and shifts are often accompanied by a squirm from the rear end as the tires search for grip. Peaking at only 1600 rpm, the B58's 365 lb-ft of torque lands with a big shove even if you're in a gear too high. It's a good reason not to be too upset that the transmission occasionally rejects ambitious downshift requests. And the engine cheerfully buries the tach needle into the yellow zone, making usable power until nearly 7000 rpm. Upshifts occur on command with no power interruption to the wheels, slurring together with a familiar BMW-like burble from the exhaust. Drivers who have experience in Bavarian sports cars will also recognize the snarl from the Supra's tailpipes on overrun.

The steering slathers the rest of the experience in glory: accurate, well weighted, and quick enough to keep up with the directional schizophrenia that is a Supra on a tight racetrack. It pairs mightily with a brake pedal that refused to quit despite our best efforts to abuse the stoppers into submission. The Supra's most obvious competitors, the Porsche 718 Cayman S and the BMW M2 Competition, are among the best sports cars in the world, and it'll need such superlative controls to challenge them.

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Breaking the Toyota Mold

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment isn't the dynamic potency of the Supra itself, but rather that the vehicle comes from Toyota and—in undeniable ways—from BMW, two companies known for their reluctance to play liability roulette. With its stability control disabled, the Supra will rotate under braking and aim readily through a corner. Powerslides are as easy as falling in love, the staggered-width Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires breaking away as predictably as they return. And if you're one of those who delights in left-foot braking, you're in luck. The Supra's computers even permit brake/throttle overlap—a scenario with which Toyota has a sensitive history. If a driver possesses these tools, he should feel at liberty to use them.

Toyota, mercifully, didn't go berserk with the Supra's drive modes. There are two—Normal and Sport. Selecting Sport toggles the throttle, transmission, steering, exhaust, dampers, and limited-slip differential into settings better suited for aggressive driving, and it can be customized to a driver's preference. Traction mode, an intermediate stability-control setting, loosens the reins but doesn't punish a driver who pushes its very reasonable limits. And then there's launch control, which we tried several times to activate yet only did so once.

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Inside, Germany persists. All of the Supra's secondary controls, from its shifter to its infotainment system, are familiar BMW fare. Also, there are only two seats—a Supra first—and a modest cargo hold. Full leather upholstery starts with the 3.0 Premium trim level. The base Supra 3.0 starts at $50,920 and comes with all the performance hardware except marginally larger rear brake rotors, which are available on the $54,920 3.0 Premium and the $56,180 Launch Edition. Sales start in July.

Our 3.0 Premium–trim tester, which included heated leather seats, a head-up display, an 8.8-inch infotainment touchscreen, a 12-speaker audio system, and slightly larger rear rotors than the base car, cost $56,115, including the $1195 Driver Assist package (adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring, etc.). It's a smaller ask than anything else that makes these kinds of numbers.

That the Supra lacks the genetic purity its fanatics might prefer is clear. But it feels silly to get too hung up on genealogy when a driving tool immerses its driver as fully into the experience as the Supra does.

View Photos Marc Urbano Car and Driver

Counterpoints

Left foot hard into the floor. Every time I stepped into the Supra, my left leg went instinctively for a nonexistent clutch pedal. Something this low, this fendered, this red triggers muscle memory. But there's no clutch in any new Supra. And while the automatic makes the loss a little easier to take by downshifting as though it just graduated from a Skip Barber school, a Supra needs a manual. My left foot knows best. – Tony Quiroga, print director

I was pulled over after about 15 minutes in the Supra. An instinct against self-incrimination prevents me from disclosing my speed [She told me 90—Ed.], but it was easy to attain and easy to overlook thanks to the engine's linear power delivery. Hefty steering, firm brakes, and joyful handling make this unlike any Toyota I've driven. I wish there were a cure for that pendulous excrescence of a nose. That's probably what got the state trooper's attention. He let me go with a warning. – Annie White, associate editor

Specifications Specifications 2020 Toyota Supra VEHICLE TYPE

front engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door hatchback PRICE AS TESTED

$56,115 (base price: $50,920) ENGINE TYPE

turbocharged and intercooled DOHC inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection

Displacement

183 cu in, 2998 cc

Power

335 hp @ 6500 rpm

Torque

365 lb-ft @ 1600 rpm TRANSMISSION

8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode CHASSIS

Suspension (F/R): struts/multilink

Brakes (F/R): 13.7-in vented disc/13.6-in vented disc

Tires: Michelin Pilot Super Sport, F: 255/35ZR-19 (96Y) ★ R: 275/35ZR-19 (100Y) ★ DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 97.2 in

Length: 172.5 in

Width: 73.0 in

Height: 50.9 in

Passenger volume: 51 cu ft

Cargo volume: 10 cu ft

Curb weight: 3372 lb C/D TEST RESULTS

Zero to 60 mph: 3.8 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 9.5 sec

Zero to 150 mph: 26.8 sec

Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 4.6 sec

Top gear, 30–50 mph: 2.5 sec

Top gear, 50–70 mph: 2.8 sec

Standing ¼-mile: 12.3 sec @ 113 mph

Top speed (governor limited, C/D est): 160 mph

Braking, 70–0 mph: 148 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 1.07 g EPA FUEL ECONOMY

Combined/city/highway: 26/24/31 mpg Expand Collapse

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