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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Wow, that’s a lot of hate.
I love mine, I’ve been driving it for over 3 years without a problem. I bought it with a known BHG. ARPs and a 2.0mm Titan MHG went in, resurfaced the head and I dyno 240 RWHP and 300lb/ft (That’s all I really need, its not a race car and I’m not a street racing douche). I daily my car and I have absolutley no issues at all (no, I don’t have burgundy cloth interior, its AAA grade Corinthian Leather that I had done a year ago). Yeah I bought a targa because it is so nice to cruise in good weather with the top off. The car is a head turner, and people are stunned to find out that its 24 years old.
I’m not going to try to change your mind about them, you’ve obviously been smoked far too many times by mild builds on a great car and now you just wanna flame up on all of them.
Enjoy pushing your fox body down the street.
The mk3 is a awesome car if you know what you are doing. If you are just a kid putting a turbo on it and calling it a day then thats what you will get from it. inline 6’s are great the poster is just hating. Almost any car out of the factory is junk in stock form. How about ditching a lot of the weight with aftermarket parts and adding big turbo with electronics. . . yes its a lot of work but anything worth doing is worth spending time on. Why would you start with a stock 4 banger or a v6 The 7m motor is superior to most 4 cylinders and v6s. yeah the v8 crowd might have a gripe but fuel economy is important too running good horsepower out of a 3.0L is awesome.
Lol, almost 2 years later butthurt Supra fanboi’s are still hating this post.
i have MA70 7mge..the point with the T-top is valid..as with any convertible..if you have the roof out and hit a big bump you can see the windscreen move…but hey is drive for 3-4 hours a day and why not do it in a comfortable seat…with the handling i have some very stiff springs and shocks and stabilizer bar fitted..for a road car this is sufficient to get some bang for your buck cornering ability
Your reasons are garbage and all fixable.
I have a 600hp supra that runs 10s all day so
U don’t know shit keep driving your Hondas
Fag