On the face of it, Toyota does not have much riding on the Supra. The Japanese brand is the sixth largest company in the world. It builds over 10m cars a year. The success or failure of a comparatively low volume rear-drive sports car is not going to dramatically affect the balance sheet one way or another. Toyota will go on being the world's biggest carmaker regardless.
But that is surely not the way Akio Toyoda sees it. The firm's current president is an avid and proven car enthusiast. This is the man, after all, who ensured that the LF-A was built. The man who has previously entered races under pseudonyms. For him, Supra means much more than sales volume and marketing leverage. It is about what Toyota can be.
Of course we've driven the car already. Several times. But it pays to see it now in the metal - alive and kicking - and in the context of the four generations that have preceded it. Yes, it is the product of a partnership, and that partnership has required compromise - all production cars do. But it does not limit Toyota's ambitions nor its best intentions. The Supra is back, and we can't wait to see where it and its maker goes from here.
