Actually, let's be honest here, they are most likely the worst Toyota ever built.
These are my top 10 reasons for hating the mk3 supra. How do I know them so well? I worked on them for nearly 2 years, I drove both RHD and LHD mk3's with all sorts of different engines, stock and modified. I've spent a lot of time wrenching on them, and man do they suck badly. Let's begin:
10. Racing History: Let's be honest, there's really nothing special here, Bjorn Waldergard won one event with the MK3 supra in a Beijing Rally, and a few British fellows ran it in BTCC for a while. No real pedigree here.
9. Steering Angle: This is straight up a joke, it can't be real, no way it's even considered safe or functional to have so little steering lock for daily use. You think I'm kidding, but that's full lock below.
8. Weight: This really should be the #1 reason why there's no point in driving an mk3 Supra for any sort of 'sporting' purposes. What's that? you've never known what the weight of a mk3 supra was? Pictured below is a vehicle that weighs nearly identical, and actually produces more power.
(Note: 3800lbs, that's right, the CK short bed, short cab, not only weighed 3800lbs, but it actually produced 230hp and 300ft/lb of torque. Although the 1JZ variant is comparable)
7. Aftermarket Styling: Yes it's a slick looking exterior, simply put, it's the only selling point of the car. However, the aftermarket stuff? yeah, look below...
6.Targa Top: So you have an oval, pretty strong shape, egg's are 3d ovals and resist deformation pretty well. Then you cut a huge chunk out of it. Now you've got an easily crushable "C" shape. Thus is the Targa roof. How bad is it for chassis flex? Toyota actually had high grade, long threaded allen bolts to hold it square when in. When out, people started putting in targa supports to help reduce the horrible flex.
5. Steering Stablizer: The whole Geometry of the MK3 Supra suspension is fucked, and to help reduce bump steer, and ultimately any sort of driver feedback that's left after the hefty power steering, was a shock, bolted to the steering rack to help reduce...something. Road feel mostly, or resist the horrible bumper steer associated with #4. This Stablizer, much like the Cressidas (Although they had different front suspensions and shared the rear) resists and sometimes completely removes the affects of caster during cornering. It reduces the speed of turn by adding a dramatic amount of resistance.
4.Suspension Dynamics: These are just plain FUCKED. For some reason, Toyota decided that going from a single lower control arm McPherson strut setup, that had proven extremely well in the Corolla's, Celica's, and Celica Supras of the past, had to go, and in place a needlessly complex, and albeit poorly designed multi-link/double wishbone setup in it's place. You want to know how bad it is? Camber actually becomes positive on compression and negative on extension. Seriously look vvv.
3. Cock Riders: This isn't about the owners. The amount of people floating around the internet praising the mk3, simply because of it's loose relation to that of an mk4 Supra most of them having never owned a Supra in their lives. Although this makes me curious of the dynamic of buying and polishing a turd.
2. 7M/1G: Pretty weak sauce. So you buy a 3800lb driveway ornament and want to go fast. In North America, your faced with the 7M, and Japan, luckily enough got the 1jz, however, they too got the 7M and even worse, the 1G. Every other M series engine was decent, the 7M screwed that right up. It's head design is the fault. People will tell you it was a bad factory gasket, or under torqued bolts. However, even with those factors coverd, the real core of the issue was a bad head design. Getting past the common, and often debilitating issue of 7m's blowing gaskets (try pushing that thing!) The power of a 7m is a joke. Remember that Toyota publishes not the wheel horse power, but the crank. By the time that inline 6 delivers it's 200hp N/a to the rear, it's about 160hp, got a turbo? Roughly 190hp. Brutal for that amount of weight, but look out! There's even a worse motor: the 1GGTE. Although not plagued with head gasket failures and people thinking they can build the ultimate 7m, only to fail like the next guy, the 1ggte had it's own issues, spinning bearings, and well, being 2 liters! Such a tiny inline 6, and it needed twin turbo's just to make the 210hp. Unless your supra screwed and end up with an n/a 1GGE at 150hp.
And the Number 1 reason MK3 supra's are garbage! *Drum Roll*
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1. Burgandy:
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Try driving a Camero, Firebird or Mustang from the same time. The first 2 are just as heavy or heaver. Than add in things like drum brakes in the rear, lousy suspension, etc. As for drifting Supras should not be used for such. Please use the trash from the American Brand cars.
http://jzxproject.com/bbs/index.php?showtopic=7234
here is all the problems with the 7m if u are going to put money into anything just by a jz series motor cause there just simply indestructible and mk3 on the other hand are pretty much only good for the steering intermediate shafts as u can use it to put a manual rack into an ae86 :P
10. it was built more as a high speed cruizer it wasnt built to win races thats why its called a sports car not a road racer
9. who cares about the lock? when do you actually use full lock when driving? you only use it in car parks and therefore its not unsafe… and you dont slide about on the road like that picture is showing
8.its heavy cos its well equipped… cruize control airbags and electronic seats… im not a fan of these things but it was waaaay advaced for its time thus giving the heavy weight and since like i said before it was more a high speed cruizer it needed to b well equipped
7. styling was typical 80s perfect… and you cant improve perfection so aftermaret kits are pointless
6.ok yes the targa top was a bit pointless but a crushable c shape? at wat point of tme r u gna hav upwards force of the front and rear of the car? cos thats the only way itll crush that way even a head on impact wudnt cause that…
5.ok yes steering was pretty bad… but remember this was the 80s wat dyu really expect?
4.double wishbone is used today… more than that single lower arm stuff hes talkin about…it was their first attempt at is as he clearly stated… u cant expect them to get it right
3.i dont even know at hes on about here…
2.7m’s are underpowered.. really? so thats y people drove them backwards into trees…hes only lookin at hp figures… nothing watsoever said about torque… and yes 7m’s did blow their headgaskets but any decent mechanic can make small improvements to stop it happening again… 1ggte is perfectly fine for it… look wat hes said here “and it needed twin turbo’s just to make the 210hp”.. he obviously dusnt no wat hes talkin about since twin turbos dont actually produce more boost than single.. it just helps elliminate lag
1. that is a matter of opinion… and the supra was the worst car toyota ever built? it was their beginning to fuel injection plus it housed the 1jz wich led to the best engine ever out of japan… the 2jz… aaand also it had the best gearbox ever to come out of japan… and it is the best as ppl r still using it today with their 350chevs and other more powerful engines…
thank you… i have won… that guy is noob he shud crawl bak to his neesan he obviously owns :)… well done mk3’s around the world show noobs like this how great toyota once was
I think the gentleman is a pillock.
I would like to say to anyone that want to drift in these cars, go home, sit in front of the tv, plug in the playstation and play any car racing game. These cars are comfortable, reliable, fun to drive. What about the Cadillac? decent power, heavy, very luxurious, cruiser, and oh wait, GM races it! WTF! Unlike some other cars like the Viper, or GT-R the MK3 was never really intended for racing. Toyota wanted a mature crowd to own and operate these fine machines right from the get go. Today, however a younger crowd is getting into them thinking of drifting and street racing. Tisk. I have had 2 mk3’s. My first was a ’90 with a 2JZ-GTE pushing 702.4 hp at the wheels. My second is a 7M-GE that I use as a daily driver. Oh and my ’90 still has its full interior (although altered to conform to regulations) and I use it at the local track for both track and drag racing.