Toyota's Reluctance to Producing Proper Sport Cars Anymore

If you are familiar with the 90's car scene, you should know that Toyota dominated with a few outstanding cars such as the Toyota Selica, 2000GT, AE86 (drift car) and the flagship Toyota Supra (Mark IV) especially. The Mark IV (MK IV) Toyota Supra is a proper sports car that can wage war with any modern day sports car, of course with a few tweaks here and there, such as slapping on a turbo or supercharger. The MK IV Supra usually came in the legendary 2JZ engine which is capable of producing the supposedly 276 horsepower. At this point, I want you to pause reading and quickly google the amount of horsepower produced by a factory Nissan R34 GT-R. If you did pause and check, you would realize that the R34 also produced 276 horsepower. Coincidence? Not at all. 

1994 Mark IV Toyota Supra

Due to something called the Japanese Automakers Gentlemen's Agreement, almost all Japanese sports cars produced in the 90's were marketed as having 276 horsepower, when in reality they all produced more. The 2JZ engine was also very welcoming to after market parts and this is the reason why Mark IV Supra's can comfortably handle a thousand plus horsepower (1000+ HP). 

After such a lengthy preamble, you realize how good of a car the MK IV Supra was and that begs the question, why has Toyota stopped giving us proper sport cars? The all new Toyota Supra was released a while back and although it is pleasing to the eye, it has gathered quite a lot of scrutiny, mainly owning to the fact that it is powered by a BMW engine. It is quite obvious that Toyota is no longer putting in it's heart and soul to give customers the drivers experience and this is all because of a car known as the Lexus LFA! For the non-car people, Lexus is simply the luxury division of Toyota, so they are basically the same company. 

Lexus LFA

The Lexus LFA, according to Jeremy Clarkson is the most proper sports car in the World, at least back then when it just came out, but guess what, it flopped badly in the market. The sales record were so bad that production had to be halted. There are a couple reasons for this sales flop but the most striking would be Toyota's love for perfection. Toyota put all it's cards on the table in the production of the LFA, the car was literally engineered to perfection on the Nürburgring but this search for perfection made the cost of production high, as a result, the LFA cost became quite pricey and this discouraged consumers from purchasing. Toyota basically ran at a loss from selling the LFA and I guess they vowed to never let such repeat itself. 

As a result of this, Toyota would rather borrow a sports car and rebadge it, as in the case of the new Supra, rather than stressing to create a masterpiece that would be underappreciated. All hope is not lost though, as the new sports division of Toyota, known as Gazoo Racing (GR) is helping to convert our regular Toyota's such as the Yaris and Corolla into track ready beasts. 

Gazoo Racing (GR) Corolla

Thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine.