I have to smile when I keep reading about the Toyota Supra "Beast." The guys saying this must be might easily impressed and just don't know about the market back in the late 80's and early to mid 1990's.
The Supra was a luxury sportscar that was seriously overweight to be a contender but had a reasonably stout 6 cyl. turbo engine. In stock form, it was a very nice touring car in the then expensive low to mid $30's. Nothing grand, nothing audacious, certainly nothing cutting edge. The Turbo model produced best Zero to 60 time of 5.8 seconds with lateral force of .96 G. Not exactly a 'beast' as some have called it on this board.
See road test at:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...rticleId=44256
Toyota responded to the threat of the Nissan 300ZX turbo and the really wild/radical rotary spin meister Mazda RX-7. I know because I was there. I bought a brand new 1995 RX-7 and one of the very last 1996 RX-7's after my 95' was flood damaged in a freak Nor'easter. The RX-7 had a razor's edge rotary with a MAMMOTH 66 cubic inch sequential TWIN turbo charged engine producing about 275 HP at 8K rpms in a 2700 pound roller skate. It developed higher lateral G forces of 1.02 than the hot Ferrari and Lambo of the day. When SUV and truck mania hit in 1995, it was all over for sports cars and sports coupes. By 96' the RX was gone and the Supra stuck it out till 1998 when it too was buried, unloved and forgotten by the truck and SUV crowd.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Toyota's Supra was giving you colorful matched leather trim interiors, deluxe cassette radio and twin zone air conditioning with dynamic stereo speakers. 'Really heady stuff' (for Toyota). Nice car but no brute, no animal, no cutting edge freaky car at all. I know, cause I considered buying it but went for the dedicated racer RX-7 sports car instead.
A Toyota Supra "super car?" Comm'on guys, like I said, get real!