New Toyota Supra on the way, A90 Final Edition not UK-bound
The last of the A90 Supras will be the most potent and the most focused. Will it finally realise the potential of Toyota’s sportscar?
The Toyota Supra Final Edition will wave off the A90 fifth-generation of the beloved Japanese sports car that’s been in service since 2019, but we won’t be getting it in the UK. The model features detail changes that ought to elevate it to be the car the Supra always should have been, with extra power, revised, focused dynamics and additional aero.
So why aren’t we getting it in the UK? Well, in the words of Toyota UK representatives, ‘you can put two and two together and get ZEV mandate’. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Head of Product and Marketing Bart Eelen, confirmed as much to evo in an interview, saying: ‘I think it’s partly driven by ZEV, Supra is discontinued in the UK anyway. It would be difficult to justify price wise.’
Eelen is obviously referring to the £15,000 fine per car that would surely be attached to each Final Edition sold in 2025, should Toyota run too far afoul of the mandate’s 28 per cent EV sales target for this year.
The Supra is not however, as Eelen went on to confirm, set to die out in general. On the contrary, early development is almost certainly underway for the next car to carry the name: ‘Supra is definitely a part of the picture going forward. We call the car you see here the A90 Final Edition, not the Supra Final Edition. The name will live on; there will be somewhere in the future, a new Supra.’
Nothing else other than the fact one is coming is yet known – whether it’s to maintain its mid-level sports car billing or graduate up to the 911-rivalling standing the A80 once had or indeed, what powertrain it’ll use.
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The A90 famously shared a platform and powertrains with BMW’s Z4, much to the chagrin of enthusiasts. While a shared parentage makes financial sense, Toyota could well have been shouted into home-brewing the next car by incensed die-hards. The next Supra almost certainly won’t be an EV at least. With the development of the G20E family of four-cylinder combustion engines in the Yaris M ongoing, all we have to worry about is whether the next Supra will get a six-cylinder.
So what are we missing out on for now? Well, the Final Edition could well be the last Supra with a six-cylinder engine, if not the last Supra at all. That is if Toyota’s persistence with the G20E project doesn’t move into modular multi-cylinder territory. We’re
also missing out on the model that could well be the realisation of the potential of the A90 Supra, which has always felt a little muzzled, whether by its controversial parentage or otherwise.
For a start, it gets a bump to 429bhp at 6000rpm and 420lb ft at 4800rpm, achieved through revised mapping, a low-pressure catalyst and a revised intake on the B58 straight-six engine. A baffled oil pan also features to maintain oil supply to the engine during high cornering forces.
Cooling has been improved too, while the vocals should be improved thanks to an Akrapovic titanium exhaust. The Supra Final Edition will exclusively use the six-speed manual transmission, feeding the rear wheels via an optimised active rear differential.
What's changed on the outside? It’s far from a 911 GT3 or Alpine A110 R-esque makeover but a dusting of carbonfibre in the form of an enlarged splitter with canards, a removable bonnet vent and a swan-neck rear wing do mark it out, in addition to nominally improving aero performance.
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Under the skin it also features KW damping-force-adjustable suspension inspired by the Supra GT4 racing car, with 16 rebound and 12 compression stages, affording enormous configurability. The body of the Supra Final Edition has also been reinforced through increased bracing, including a GT4-spec cross cage in the rear of the cabin. There are also strengthened front and rear stabilisers
Turn in response should be sharper and lateral grip increased thanks to more aggressive camber, while the 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels are shod in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres with a 10mm wider contact patch. Hiding within those wheels are 19-inch Brembo brakes at the front with track-optimised pads and braided hoses.
The Supra may have caught some grief over the years for being a bit too ‘BMW’ but there are some very not-BMW bits in the cabin of this Final Edition. Just look at those Recaro Podium full carbon bucket seats, with Alcantara padding. The driver focus is highlighted by the entire driver’s area – from the seat to the door card and transmission tunnel – being shod in bright red Alcantara, with a centre stripe topping the Alcantara-trimmed steering wheel too.
We might not be getting the Final Edition, but it sounds like this won’t be the last we see of the Supra and certainly not, of GR-branded performance Toyotas.
