1994 Toyota Supra Turbo from North America - Comments

Power antenna has bent twice... left it up both times through the car wash! Replaced with a rubberized GPS-style stubby antenna.

Weather-striping at front of targa roof became loose causing turbulence when the targa was off. Added 3M double sided tape to cure this.

Toyota was years ahead of the competition when it introduced this car in 1993. Even by today's standards, this car is still very relevant. Fantastic engine performance, stupendous brakes, driver-centric comfortable interior, and RELIABLE. There are few sports cars that can match the reliability of a Supra.

My Supra is a 1994, and has been tastefully modded. It now makes over 500 horsepower at the crank, yet is still docile enough to be my daily driver. Combined city and highway driving yields 22.5 MPG, which is amazing for this caliber of performance. Put flatly, the performance is immense. This is one of the few cars that you can truly say pushes you back in the seat with its explosive power and acceleration. How fast? Mid 12's in the quarter mile on street tires on relatively low boost. The interior is very comfortable, with the center stack tilted towards the driver. A tach sits front and center in the gauge display. The ride is firm, but very comfortable and forgiving. It is nowhere near as harsh as a C5 Corvette, yet delivers better handling (.96G on the skidpad!). The targa adds a nice touch for summer days, and is remarkably turbulent free.

But best of all is just how reliable this car is. You'd think with the amount of horsepower, that things might break. Not so. All that is done is regular oil changes every 3000 miles. I also change the spark plugs at the same interval since it's cheap to do and keep the car performing perfectly. Nothing has gone wrong with this car. It's as reliable as any other Toyota, which means just add gas and go, go , go!

A very helpful review. I'm looking at getting a supra very soon. I have been comparing nearly every other used car available for the same money, and nothing comes near the supra's 326 BHP and 315 FT LB's torque in Twin Turbo form. Just not too keen on going for an Auto. May have to pay a bit extra and find a manual. Had a Golf VR6 auto and found the auto box soooooooo annoying. If anyone has or has driven a supra TT auto, please post and let me know what you think of the auto box.

Just sold my 1992 MR2 turbo because it just didn't have enough torque when you needed it. Hopefully a supra will quench my craving for power.

I have read nearly every supra review on here. And to be honest, I have never laughed quite so much at the amount of childish comments and little digs made about nearly every review, and how much better american cars are than supra's. Street nationals this, street nationals that. HA. Makes me laugh.

Yes I concur with the above poster.

It is stupid to compare apples and oranges 'street nationals' which no one seems ot have heard of!.

So what of certain american muscle cars are faster, the fact is they don't handle (excluding a very select few such as the new z06 corvette, vipers and the ford gt, good cars!) but other than that can't think of one american muscle car that could get round a corner fast with there ancient live rear axle's and separate chassis.

For instance what about the 60's muscle cars great in there day, but remember the brits also had the e-type which was much, much better looking than them all in my opinion and would run rings around them on a track with any sort of bend on, let's not even bring the ferrari 250's into this because that is overkill and we all know what the outcome of a race would be there.

Don't get me wrong I love the sound of v8's rumbling away and they are a rare sight over here in the uk, but here in the uk are race tracks such as silverstone, donnington and knockhill, which are very challenging tracks with real tight bends and chicanes on that an american car would be left wondering what the hell happened were even a 1.4 corsa would fly by on the bend with the charger or the like in the dirt!.

Real racing is not just about 0-60 times, top speed or 1/4 miles times its about corners and 'lap times' around a winding circuit.

Maybe if the guy from street nationals is so confident about his 'big block' v8's he should go to the nurb in germany for a little 'test' against soemthing such as an integra type--r or the very highly tuned escort cossie's that run 7 min laps! I've seen a 600bhp cossie literally murder a c5 corvette around there! it is also worth noting that the corvette had neally 900bhp as well! think it may have been lingelfelter or something like that, anyway it was a fair bit quicker than the cossie, but was left looking stupid after a very short time!.

What I'm saying is in most cases american v8's will be faster than a turbo'd civic due to there huge torque figures, but at the end of the day there are also corners to consider and I don't think that even with the best there is to offer from modifying the big 'v8's' they still have old technology and are very heavy.

That is all I will say for now.

James Br.

Totally agree with comment above.

I love the sound of a big American v-8,but as overall package the Supra is still right up there in the UK as one of the bench mark cars today.

Just a shame that petrol price's and steep insurance costs put me off owning a brilliant car.

I agree fully with what's been said above.

I myself also being from the uk appreciate american muscle and also love the look and feel of the japanese supercars.

Both seem to have there good and bad points, however if I was to have one again it would probably be japenese as a classic american v8 while they are very nice and sound mean don't really make sense as they are like boats on our roads and would literally cost an arm and a leg on petrol alone!.

A supra seems a much more sensible option or any of the other japanese greats (skyline's etc.)

If anyone has any info on this 'world street nationals' thing the other commentor from other reviews is going on about id like to take a look to see if it is real because I've read the review with 91 comments! on and he is obviously upset because a supra has kicked his ass in his camaro 'boat'. lol.

Also don't know if anyone's seen that new clarkson dvd, but he gets an 80's lincoln town car and an 80's jag sovereign and fills them up with water from the sunroof, the lincoln is pissing out water everywhere! through all seals there must be umpteen holes the thing! whereas the jag holds together like a good 'un.

It just shows the shocking build quality of most american cars, and jags of the time weren't the best built either!.

Jeb.

Hi.

I'm the original poster of this review. For those that asked.. the car is an automatic, and I'm very pleased with how it works. It also has a manumatic mode where you shift the gears. It's somewhat of a true manumatic. If you forget and leave the car in 3rd gear at a light, it will drive off in 3rd gear... no 1st gear default here! The shifts are crisp when you are on the gas, but smooth when just cruising. I can't say it again... you simply cannot find another car that delivers so much, yet is so docile and reliable to drive as a daily commuter.

Aftermarket support is exceptional if you enjoy working on cars as I do. I have since replaced the torque converter to a higher stall unit and added new shocks and springs and some custom made wheels. As standard, the brakes are exceptional and required no upgrading. The Supra held the 60-0 and 70-0 braking records for nearly 12 years. That really says something. Also, in most car reviews in magazines, the compared the Supra against Vettes, Porsche Turbos, Ferraris, Acura NSX, etc.. and the Supra nearly always came out on top.

Fantastic car. I couldn't happier. If you want more info, visit SupraForums or MKIV.com.

I have read this whole string and have to make some comments. First of all you're not comparing fairly, If you want to compare powerplants they have to either be both aspirated, both turbocharged, or both supercharged. To the reader who says that Domestics will get killed on corners, well have you heard of the straightaway? The Old school thinking of 0-60, 1/4 mile time comes in here. I have a caprice and averaged 20mpg city. So it depends on how much you use the gas AND brake pedal- Elmhurst, IL.

Yeah the good 'ol straightaway.

Maybe your domestic will be equal if not faster than the supra, but here in europe especially the uk there are a lot of 'backroads' with tight bends and long sweeping banked corners.

So how would your 'barge' cope then? ill tell you pretty bad.

Life is not a straight line.

If you want all out performance in a straight line then go to australia where many highways I believe are still unrestricted and you can drive flat out all day if you so wish, I think this would soon get old though and when you've got a car that is a brilliant all rounder such as the supra you have to wonder why you americans only hark on about your badly built domestics.

Try to think outside the box for once.

Are single turbos Supras better than twin turbo Supras?

The single turbo supra's that you can get hold of are better for very high power outputs i.e. 750bhp +, however there is so much lag it's not really usable unless your on long straights or a drag strip where you can take advantage of all that grunt.

I think the twin-turbo set-up works well in the standard car and don't see a need to modify it unless your going for ultimate power as 500 bhp is a realistic figure to get from a twin-turbo setup very easily.

And ripping out the good standard set-up for a huge turbo really doesn't make sense for an everyday enjoyable car that the supra can be.

The only event that can compare any cars between themselves is the Tsukuba Circui Time Attack. It is the ony circuit that requires an all rounder car to perform well. If compare you must, compare it at the Tsukuba Circuit Time Attack.