Toyota Supra MK4 Review

Overall Rating

Great looks
Super car performance
Family saloon prices

Standard alloy wheels are uninspiring
Standard exhaust lacks the sporty note you expect from a sports/super car
Rear seats useless for all but small children and hand luggage
There are comboy tuners/modifiers out there

The MK IV Toyota Supra is arguably the best value super car ever made. Performance in standard, trim is excellent, and with performance modifications/enhancements, can be made electrifying (claims of 1000+ BHP have been made, and in some cases, can be backed up by dyno results).

The basic layout is simple... A lightweight 2+2 GT chassis, double wishbone suspension front and rear, and a front mounted 3 litre 6 cylinder in-line engine driving the rear wheels. Irrespective of what you hear, all the MK IV Supra's were built in Japan, and essentially there were different specifications for different markets (domestic [Japanese market], and export [everywhere else]).

The export market car came fully loaded with full leather, and just about all the cost options as standard, was right or left hand drive (depending on the country it was destined for), and customers essentially had a choice of colour, a choice of auto or manual box, and I believe in some cases, twin-turbo or non-turbo, although I've seen no evidence that the non-turbo was ever sold in the UK. Other than RHD/LHD there were no differences between the UK and USA market cars, and differences in Toyota's claimed BHP figures for the two markets are down to the lower octane fuels used in the USA compared to the UK.

There were several different specifications available for the domestic Japanese market (twin-turbo/non-turbo, leather/cloth seats, auto/manual, and so on), including a removable hard-top roof (not available on the export market/UK spec cars), but some combinations of options simply weren't available (I don't believe that you could have a manual twin-turbo with a removable roof - certainly I've never seen or heard of one, but if you know better please let me know). If you're thinking of buying a Japanese market car, make sure that you do your homework before you buy, as retro fitting an option can be a costly exercise (converting a non-turbo to a twin-turbo is pretty much a non-starter from a cost and effort point of view).

The export market/UK spec car (which UK spec owners generally insist is by the far the best) had several differences from the domestic/Japanese spec car (even with all the options factory fitted). The UK spec car had larger fuel injectors, larger steel turbos, different camshaft profiles, a different air metering system for the ECU, a different traction control system, and was electronically limited to 155mph. The UK spec car was essentially set up as a GT/super-tourer when it left the factory, and still holds up exceptionally well when compared to the latest offerings from Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes, but at a fraction of the purchase price, and with similarly inexpensive servicing costs.

The domestic market/Japanese spec car had smaller injectors, smaller ceramic turbo's, some (particularly the earlier models) had smaller brakes etc. Later models (about '96/'97 onwards) were available with Toyota's excellent VVT-i variable valve timing system, and all Japanese spec cars were electronically limited to 180 kph (about 112 mph). The main Achilles heel of the Japanese spec car is the traction control system, which, unlike the UK spec car, isn't a true traction control system but an Electronic Throttle Control System. The system monitors the wheels for slippage, but as opposed to applying a brake to the spinning wheel (as per the UK spec traction control system) electronically backs off the throttle until it's happy that the wheels aren't spinning anymore. In most cases the system works well, but can lead to embarrassing situations when trying to pull out of a side turning into traffic in slippery conditions. The system detects wheel spin, backs off the throttle, and you sit there with your foot flat on the floor going nowhere with cars approaching you from both directions!!!

Also it is a fact of life that turbos can fail - note that ceramic turbos fail more often than steel ones. That's not to say that you shouldn't buy a Japanese spec car with ceramic turbos, but try and make sure that it's been properly looked after, and look after it yourself. If your turbos do go, it won't be cheap, and you can't simply fit the larger (more powerful) steel turbos from the UK spec car - the fittings are different.

The electronic speed limiter is easily bypassed, and if you buy a Japanese spec car this will almost certainly have been done by the original owner, if not, this will probably be done as a matter of course when the speedo is converted from kph to mph. Toyota's claimed BHP figure for the Japanese spec car was lower than that for the export market car (in actual fact it wasn't as low as they claimed), but the factory setup was much more as a sprinter/racer than a long-distance loper/GT car. As a result of this (with both cars in standard trim [but with the speed limiters bypassed]), despite the smaller turbos and injectors, the Japanese spec car develops more power low down, and as a result accelerates faster (up to a point where a UK spec car will come back at you and then pull away). As a general rule of thumb in standard trim (and with relatively light levels of tuning), the Japanese specification car will develop more power at usable/sensible, and dare I say, even legal speeds, compared to the UK spec car. The Japanese market cars (when compared like for like [unmodified/modified etc]) tend to be cheaper than the UK spec. With Toyota's legendary reliability, and just about all UK Toyota dealers now offering full support for all Toyota's (wherever they were originally sold), you should have no difficulty supporting and maintaining your Supra whatever spec you opt for.

All sorts of after market add-ons and performance modifications are available for the MK IV Supra should you have a mind (and a bank balance) to do so. As most of these products were developed for the domestic Japanese market, the chances are that at some stage, an export/UK spec car will need to have it's air metering system converted to the same as the Japanese spec cars, to take advantage of the performance modifications available. With the lower initial purchase cost, and not needing to carry out the air metering conversion, a Japanese spec car seems to make more sense if you want to build yourself a monster Supra, but you pays your money and takes your choice.

A few words of warning concerning modifying your Supra. The Supra is not a difficult car to work on, but modifying one is not a cheap exercise. Since the grey import market took off, tuning companies have sprung up all over the place, offering all sorts of goodies for your Japanese car. Many of these tuners will try to impress you with claims of the BHP figures their modifications will yield. Not only is it easy to modify your Supra, it's easy to modify it badly - getting a Supra to run at 500, 600 or even 800+ BHP is relatively straight forward, but getting it to do this and still maintain Toyota's reputation for reliability, is another thing altogether. I found out the hard way that even going to a company claiming to be the leading tuner of Supra's in the UK is no guarantee of getting a good job done. Having your Supra tuned or modified by someone who doesn't REALLY know what they're doing can leave you with a very expensive bill to remove the modifications they put on, un-do the damage, and then do the modification properly. My advice would be to join the Owner's Club, get to know the members and their cars, then use personal recommendations to select your tuner/modifier.

When all's said and done the Mk IV Supra isn't the super car of choice for National Lottery winners for nothing. It looks great, handles well and goes like a rocket. It won't cost you an arm and a leg to buy, run, modify or insure, and even now, years after they stopped making it, will turn heads even when driving past the Porsche, Lamborghini, and Ferrari etc... dealers in Knightsbridge.

I've had my Japanese spec manual twin-turbo for 6+ years now, and I'm still very much in love, and wouldn't swap her for anything (well, alright if you offered me a Mosler MT900S or a Pagani Zonda C12S you could tempt me, but you can't use those cars on an everyday basis like you can a Supra).