The word “Supra” is Latin, and you may not be surprised to learn it means “above, higher than, beyond.” In other words: super. That’s right, the Toyota Supra is literally a supercar, at least in terms of the branding it’s worn over a five-generation run that dates back to the late ‘70s.
Regardless, the Supra has scores of fans, us included, so we’ve chosen this little super coupe as the next subject of our GOAT Project. Following our inaugural GOAT Project vehicle, the Jeep Wrangler, we’ve chosen the Supra because of its unique history.
The Supra started life in 1979 as a larger, more luxurious, six-cylinder version of the Toyota Celica, a bond it shared into the car’s second generation. Just after the start of Reagan’s second term, though, the third-gen Supra and fourth-gen Celica split into the low-slung coupes we associate them with today, the former sticking with rear-wheel drive and the latter adopting a front-wheel-drive platform.
And then came the early ‘90s and the fourth-generation Supra, which is perhaps the most well known of the bunch. Competing against a murderer’s row of Japanese sport coupes, the fourth-gen Supra mixed period-correct smoothened looks with incredible performance hardware. It became a favorite for tuners, and unmolested twin-turbo examples routinely sell for six figures at auction today.
But the Supra line ended in the US in 1998, thought never to return. Fortunately, society loves a reboot, and Toyota saw fit to resurrect the Supra in 2020 thanks to a partnership with BMW that helped distribute the costs. The new Supra returned as the platform mate of the BMW Z4 with more horsepower than any time in its history. It’s also surprisingly lightweight (relatively speaking). Its styling, however, is a bit controversial, which could hamper it in our GOAT Project.
So you can follow along, there have been five generations of Supra since 1979, each with its own two-character alphanumeric designation.
- A40/A50 (1979-1981)
- A60 (1982-1986)
- A70 (1986.5-1992)
- A80 (1993-1998)
- A90/A91 (2020-present)
As you can see, the lineage continues uninterrupted until the end of the fourth-generation A80 era, with the third generation A70 model enjoying the longest run of more than five years. Also, in some circles, the A90 and A91 are known using the J29 model code that follows BMW convention, for reasons we’ll get into later.
Table Stakes
Before we begin, we have to define what makes a particular generation of Toyota Supra the best one. We’ve done this part for you, so here are the data points we’ll be using.
- Combined Power/Torque (higher is better)
- Pounds per horsepower (lower is better)
- Weight (lower is better)
- Inflation-Adjusted Price (lower is better)
- Design
- Just Want It Factor
All of our data points are objective except the last two: Design and the Just Want It factor. If we didn’t have these measurements, there’d be no discussion to have after we tallied the hard numbers. It is, essentially, what makes this whole process fun.
In order to give well-rounded scores for Design and the Just Want It factor to each generation of Supra, we assembled a body of automotive journalists, industry insiders, and general car nerds we trust to rank them subjectively. As you can imagine, the results were as non-unanimous as I’m sure the comments from the peanut gallery will be. But, in the end, they helped us determine which Toyota Supra generation reigns supreme.
Let’s begin and find out which Supra is the most super.
Rank #5: A40/A50 (1979-1981)
Pounds per Horsepower: 24.1
Weight: 2,800 pounds
Inflation-Adjusted Price: $33,092
Design: Last
Just Want It Factor: Last
It’s not surprising the first-generation Supra is last on our list. It is the least Supra-like of all the Supra generations. Blame it on the Toyota Celica. The legendary nameplate launched in 1979 as the Celica Supra, rather than its own car. While it was longer and wider than its donor platform, the two were basically the same.
What the first Supra did have over the Celica was a better engine. It launched with a 2.6-liter inline six-cylinder engine that was later upgraded to a 2.8-liter. This is how old the first-generation Supra is: Its original engine was the first Toyota mill with electronic fuel injection.
Nevertheless, Toyota hadn’t figured out yet that the Supra is a sports car. The fuel-injected engine made less than 120 horsepower, and handling wasn’t particularly athletic, with lots of roll and pitch.
So the first-generation car languishes at the bottom of our list because it’s slow and looks like a Chevrolet. That said, older doesn’t necessarily equal worse in our world, as you’ll soon see.
Rank #4: A90/A91 (2020-present)
Pounds per Horsepower: 8.8
Weight: 3,351 pounds
Inflation-Adjusted Price: $46,440
Design: Fourth
Just Want It Factor: Fourth
Ouch! It has to hurt the Toyota faithful, seeing the Supra that’s currently on sale rank second-to-last in a battle of Supra generations. This despite having the most power and torque and a surprisingly trim weight. On a track, the A90/A91 Supra would easily smoke every other generation, even the indomitable fourth-gen A80. What went wrong?
The current Supra’s numbers look great on paper, but things aren’t as positive when you lift your gaze above the top of the sheet. To say the modern Supra’s styling is polarizing would be an understatement. While it very closely mimics the FT-1 concept car that debuted all the way back in 2014, it’s got a schnoz for the ages that appears to pay homage to open-wheel race cars but doesn’t nail it like the Ferrari Enzo.
Still the current car isn’t without its fans. As one of our panel of car-expert voters opined about the design, “With the Supra, Toyota just went to 11 out of the gate and it took me a little while to get my head around it. But now I love the look, and I love the way [the Supra] drives too.”
Unfairly or not, the current Supra is also judged harshly for being a BMW Z4 underneath its skin. Not only do all the mechanicals, from the powertrain to the suspension bits, come from BMW, the interior switchgear does too. It’s even assembled by BMW, complete with a German-language plaque under the hood touting the “Bayerische Motoren Werke” factory in Munich. We’re not calling this Supra a badge-engineered job like General Motors used to be famous for, but you can’t call it a Toyota without an asterisk, either.
Rank #3: A70 (1986-1993)
Pounds per Horsepower: 16.3
Weight: 3,792 pounds
Inflation-adjusted price: $46,417
Design: Third
Just Want It Factor: Third
The Supra’s third generation finally broke away from its Celica roots. While the Celica switched to a more anemic front-wheel-drive platform, the Supra continued with rear-wheel drive and added anti-lock brakes, double-wishbone suspensions front and rear, an available limited-slip differential, and available adjustable dampers, as well as a turbocharged engine for the first time.
World-beating performance became a priority, and the Supra’s acceleration and handling numbers bore that out: 60 miles per hour passed by in 6.4 seconds, and it could hit 145 flat out.
At this point, some car magazines were beginning to compare the Supra with the mighty Corvette, though it was hobbled by one thing: its weight. At its porkiest, the A70 Supra weighed nearly 3,800 pounds and is the heaviest generation of Supra by far. Fortunately, the next two generations would lose some of that baby fat while adding more and more power to the equation.
Aside from weight, where it ranked dead last, the A70 Supra’s numbers put it smack dab in the middle of every other category we ranked, giving it a fitting, mid-pack finish.
Rank #2: A60 (1981-1986)
Pounds per Horsepower: 18.6
Weight: 3,000 pounds
Inflation-Adjusted Price: $45,849
Design: First
Just Want It Factor: Second
While still technically a Celica, the second-generation A60 Supra was seriously souped up compared to its predecessor. With a suspension tuned by Lotus and a buttery smooth dual-overhead-cam inline six-cylinder engine making up to 161 horsepower, the A60 was the first Supra that was serious about performance.
It was also a looker, ditching the first-gen’s econo-coupe styling for that of a low-slung, angular fastback. It also diverged from the contemporary Celica with a sharper front end and standard driving lights, and unlike the four-cylinder model, the Supra came only in a liftback form.
A Performance package also got you fender flares, bigger wheels and tires, and if you were lucky, louvers on the back hatch. Our panel of experts rated it the best design among all Supras.
As your author, I must admit my bias. I owned an A60 Supra during high school in the mid-’90s. Despite being nearly as old as I was at the time, the second-gen Supra looked as wicked and fast as any new model on sale. A moment of silence, though, for my Scalded Chicken (the name given it by my dad); I totaled her in a low-speed head-on collision on my way to work at the mall.
Rank #1: A80 (1993-1998)
Pounds per Horsepower: 10.8
Weight: 3,461 pounds
Inflation-Adjusted Price: $71,467
Design: Second
Just Want It Factor: First
When someone says “Supra,” the fourth-generation A80 model is probably what pops into your head. It’s the car Brian O’Conner raced Dominick Toretto with at the end of The Fast and the Furious. Not that the fourth-gen Supra needed the screen time; it would’ve been popular regardless of the extra attention.
What makes it so good? The A80 Supra massively raised the car’s performance envelope over the previous generation, adding nearly 100 hp while cutting hundreds of pounds of weight. It was the engine, though, that made the A80 a car to remember.
The 2JZ is a 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine that was available in the fourth-gen Supra with twin sequential turbochargers. Making 320 hp and 315 pound-feet of torque, it helped the Supra beat the Corvette, the Nissan 300ZX, and even the Acura NSX to 60 miles per hour. What’s more, it loved to be tuned. With a bottom end that trial and error revealed could withstand thousands of horsepower, the 2JZ granted the fourth-gen Supra legendary status among tuners.
Its only Achilles heel was price. Adjusted for inflation, the A80 Supra would cost $71,467 in today’s money. That’s far more than the lighter and faster fifth-gen Supra costs. But if you happened to invest in one back in the ‘90s and kept your A80 as a garage queen, you’d have an appreciating asset that would sell for well over six figures at auction today.
How’d We Get Here?
The first-generation Supra, important as it was in defining the car’s grand-touring archetype, just wasn’t that interesting enough to curry favor with our experts. And since we’re a nostalgic bunch, the most recent Supra didn’t tug at our heartstrings as much as some of the ‘80s and ‘90s legends that preceded it.
And of those middle three generations, it’s really hard to ignore not only the performance, but also the cultural importance, of the A80. From its apperances in the Gran Turismo video game series, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s first outing together, and on our own neighborhood streets and local dragstrips, that rounded, sleek Supra is everywhere.
After all that, we can safely say that we’ve chosen the truest GOAT Supra. But if you disagree (and we’re sure you will), feel free to drop us a note at tips@carid.com.
