Haters gonna hate. The A80 Mark IV Toyota Supra is a legend, a twin-turbocharged iconoclast of the 1990s that shattered expectations and inspired a generation of motorsports enthusiasts even before being featured in the first of the Fast and Furious movie franchise. An amazingly fast and competent enthusiast’s automobile in nearly every way, the one thing that Mark IV Supra was not the best at was taking corners. This is not to say that the A80 was terrible in the twisties, but its claim-to-fame was undoubtedly its robust and uncompromising 2JZ engine which nearly effortlessly could produce limitless horsepower.
We mention this because the new A90 Supra is also fast, but until the video above from Evasive Motorsports on YouTube, we haven’t had a good scope on just how nimble this decidedly leaner Toyota Supra might be. We’ve seen the Supra on Top Gear’s test track in the hands of The Stig, and we’ve heard estimates on Nürburgring times from Toyota executives. We’ve even experienced the A90’s lateral abilities firsthand courtesy of the good folks over at Induction Performance. This clip, however, gives us an up-close and hard-and-fast lap time to compare with other cars…and it’s exceptionally quick!
This lap comes from Buttonwillow Raceway courtesy of pro drifter Dai Yoshihara in a showroom stock Supra, clocking a lap time of just 1:58.92. A number which probably means nothing to most of you, but to give it some context here are comparable lap times with this particular track configuration as reported by fastestlaps.com. A Nissan GT-R was only slightly quicker at 1:56.9, while a very capable 997 Porsche 911 GT2 came in only slightly slower at a still-impressive 1:59.7. Suffice to say internet uproar be damned, this BMW infused A90 while imperfect is indeed a competent enthusiasts car that will provide tuners with a great platform to improve on. Oh, and we can’t wait to see what SEMA brings to offer this year…
