January 15: All hail the mighty Supra

From such humble beginnings arose one of the most talked about and anticipated unveilings of the past couple of years. The hot new Toyota Supra.........

And so typical of Toyota design these days, there is not a styling cliche left off of this new rocket from Japan. There won't be a car wash anywhere that will love this car. Relax, today's is not a design critique blog, since I like surface interest or else I wouldn't be driving a new Maxima. But since you asked, I hate the front end, as it resembles the very first and rather ugly BMW Z3, but more about that later.

Humble beginnings, you say? Absolutely, as the original was nothing more than a Celica with a lengthened front end to accommodate a six cylinder motor........

Next up was a much better looking transformation of the next generation Celica.......

The Supra started to get some respect and so it went with the next generation, which bore no relationship to the smaller sport coupe Celica........

.......but the ultimate Supra was the last generation, which was a fire breather and got more respect than one could ever have imagined by being a hero ride in the mindless and mind numbing The Fast and the Furious movies.........

Yeah, this is the one that stole people's hearts and the one folks remembered, when they wished that the mighty Supra would make a reappearance, since it was consigned to the auto boneyard in 2002.

Patience pays off, since a very long seventeen years later, Toyota has wrought a new version. Maybe this decision to re-intro was driven by Toyota's mission to re-imagine themselves into a company, whose cars are capable handlers and even sporty. Think back to my blog about the new sport version of the Avalon whale car from a couple of months ago.

Well folks, the Supra has arrived and it comes with a first cousin from Germany, the new BMW Z4........

Argue all you want about which is the best hammer or the best looking one, but under those completely different approaches to styling, is the same BMW performance tuned power plant. Really? Yes, really. These days (years) even the mightiest companies need to have joint ventures to bring to market niche vehicles.

Did I mention that this new Supra will be built in Austria by that great Canadian company Magna? Also, there will be a four cylinder version, which should do wonders for this "wild" ride's street cred. Have the mighty fallen or been reborn?

You decide, would you prefer going to your local BMW dealer for service, or line up with the Corollas and Camrys at your local and more user friendly Toyota store? Choose a design that scares young children or the alternative? Nice to live in a world of choices, but breathe easier now that Toyota has brought back the once mighty Supra.

Until next time......