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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This individual makes me laugh!
Has a whole two years of experience working on Toyota Supra’s… WOW!
I have 35+ years working in my trade. That would be considered an expert in my field along with a respected opinion.
omg!! what a cock!!
Firstly its a tuning car which means setting it up and modifying it to your desired set up, No race car used on a track is any where near close to the factory car it was based on!!!!
And further more the 7mgte engine is one of the best factory tuners eva made and way a head of anything of its time. just coz some nob who don’t no how to drift blames it on the steering rack!!! they can paste lambo’s in a drag race, tuned up its a poor persons super car!! u can buy one for the same price as a Nissan micra so rock ON
Its called a grinder! if its to heavy cut some shit of!! like aircon, air bags, ABS power steering and interior coz no one likes bage! but really
change the rack to a competition rack and mount it higher lower the suspension and ill rape your GTR however tuned, coz I rely on my skill not the cars!!
And Quinn if u want to know what a spanner is? go look in the mirror!!
[…] The MKIII Toyota Supra. This poor car has been much maligned, sometimes justifiably other times not so much. It has to be noted that the MKIII will always be overshadowed by its bigger and younger sibling, […]
I agree very mich with the author. This car really suck big time. And to Lara Lam, you’re a big noob fanboi. Why won’t you accept the fact that it really sucks from the factory. Does other cars like rival skyline Gtr BNR32 suck as bad from the factory? It even held its own vs. the ferrari testarossa! Or how about the lesser celica or silvia s13s? Heck! They can be called tuner cars but they don’t have to be modded almost from ground up to be good!
See, I love cars like these as much as the next guy but we must give credit where credit is due… And don’t when it doesn’t deserve one. These are cold hard facts. All that comments here to bash the author are either noob or an owner of this car and pretends / goes blind to its flaws… TONS of it as a matter of fact.
DL- The R32 GTR is not a direct rival of the Supra, in fact the GTR didn’t really have a direct rival as there was no equivolent at the time, It was built to win races basically. The 300ZX was the rival of the Supra, both 3 litre NA and turbo, both GT cars, RWD targa and hardtop. They were made to look cool, handle ok, be comfortable and be a bit exciting when the mood struck. They tick all of these boxes.
The 7M has it’s flaws yes, and 230hp is nothing special by today’s standards. Especially for a turbo 3 litre. In the 80’s they had crap fuel to contend with and old engine management technology.
They can be woken up to make solid power with a few mods. There is no denying this. They can handle quite well with some basic suspension upgrades too.
The author deserves all of the shit thrown at him because he is a massive wanker with no idea of what he is talking about. Name one vehicle manufacturer that quotes power at the wheels? Anyone who knows/tunes cars would know this.