A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better

A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better

The new Toyota Supra always left me feeling a little flat. It’s quick, powerful, and nimble, of course. In a world full of performance SUVs and crossover coupes, I’m thrilled that Toyota stayed true to tradition, maintaining the Supra as a two-seat, two-door sports coupe. But the car never truly grabbed me. A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better

The car has gotten better for 2021. Just one year into the Supra’s tenure, Toyota gave it a significant power boost. The twin-turbo 3.0-liter straight-six engine now makes 382 horsepower for 2021, up from last year’s 335 (torque rises by a mere 3 lb-ft, to 368). The active rear differential and electronic stability systems have been adjusted to accommodate the extra power, and additional bracing ties the strut towers to the radiator mount, stiffening the front-end feel. A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better

This year, for the first time, American customers will be able to purchase a four-cylinder Supra. The 2.0-liter variant has been available in Europe and Japan since the debut of the A90-generation car; Toyota decided that, with the increase in horsepower for the top-spec Supra, the addition of a more affordable variant made sense for U.S. buyers. A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better

The GR Supra 2.0 offers 255 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque, identical to the BMW Z4 sDrive 30i that it shares nearly everything with. Compared to the six-cylinder Supra, the four has different spring and damper tuning, a mechanical (rather than electronic) limited-slip differential, smaller brakes, and downsized 18-inch wheels. The base-model Supra also forgoes the adaptive suspension that’s standard on the 3.0. Toyota claims the two-liter Supra weighs in at 3181 lbs, a weight savings of roughly 220 lbs.

The loss of the eLSD shaved some weight off the rear, allowing the four-cylinder Supra to match the six-cylinder’s near-50-50 front-rear weight distribution. Both four- and six-cylinder Supras get an eight-speed automatic as their only gearbox choice.

And if you’re asking me which one I’d choose out of the two, I’d go for the four-cylinder.

So A Four-Cylinder Engine Helps Make the Toyota Supra Better