Sunday, September 23, 2007

Toyota Supra - Fourth Generation

The Toyota Supra was a sports car/grand tourer produced by Toyota Motor Company from 1979 to 2002. The styling of the Toyota Supra was derived from the Toyota Celica, but it was both longer and wider.[3] Starting in mid-1986, the Supra (in its third generation, MKIII) became its own model and was no longer based on the Celica. In turn, Toyota also stopped using the prefix Celica and began just calling the car Supra.[4] Due to the similarity and past of the Toyota Celica's name, it is frequently mistaken for the Toyota Supra, and vice versa.

With the fourth generation of the Supra, Toyota took a big leap in the direction of a more powerful sports car. The new Supra was completely redesigned, with rounded body styling partly based on the Ferrari F40[citation needed] and featured two new engines: a naturally aspirated 2JZ-GE producing 220 hp @5800 rpm (164 kW) and 210 ft·lbf @4800 rpm (285 N·m) of torque and a twin turbocharged 2JZ-GTE making 276 bhp (239 kW) and 260 ft·lbf (352 N·m) of torque for the Japanese version. For the export model (America/Europe) Toyota upgraded the Supra turbo's engine (larger turbochargers, bigger fuel injectors, etc.). This increased the power output to 320 hp @5600 rpm and 315 lb.ft @4000 rpm. The turbocharged variant could achieve 0–60 mph in as low as 4.6 seconds and 1/4 mile (402 m) in 13.1 seconds at 109 mph [2]. The turbo version was tested to reach over 289 km/h (180 mph) all-stock, but the cars are restricted to just 180 km/h in Japan and 250 elsewhere. European versions also had an air intake on the bonnet. Drag coefficient is .33.

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