The livestream will start at 3:00 PM EST / 8 PM GMT.
It was early August 2019 when Tetsuya Tada, Supra’s chief engineer, made a rather important announcement regarding the resurrected sports car. He said there would be a new version of the A90 basically every year, and now it looks like Toyota is living up to that promise for the 2020 calendar year.
Rather than introducing the new flavor of the Supra at the 2020 Chicago Auto Show, “the next chapter of Toyota GR Supra story” will be presented today at the Daytona International Speedway ahead of the famous 500-mile-long NASCAR race set for Sunday in Daytona Beach, Florida. Side note – 2019 marked the first year when Toyota had a race car other than the Camry in the NASCAR competition. Yes, it was a Supra.
Details about the novelties brought by the 2021 model year are shrouded in mystery, but it’s widely believed a new entry-level version powered by a four-cylinder engine is on the agenda. If the reports are correct, it would obviously undercut the outgoing inline-six-only 2020 GR Supra available from $49,990. Considering a four-banger has already been registered with the California Air Resources Board and Toyota already sells one in Japan and Europe, it is likely coming to the U.S. of A. as well.
On the Old Continent, the four-pot Supra packs 254 horsepower and 295 pound-feet (400 Newton-meters) of torque in a car that has perfect 50:50 weight distribution. When Toyota announced the four-cylinder model for Europe at the beginning of the year, it promised even sharper handling and better chassis balance compared to the inline-six variant thanks to the smaller and lighter engine.
That might not be the only update planned for the 2021 GR Supra as a teaser image published last week showed the rear-wheel-drive sports car wearing a fresh coat of paint. Fire up the configurator for the current model year and you’ll only find a darker shade of blue whereas the one depicted in the teaser photo was brighter.
The New Supra Has Already Been Modified:
Not only that, but the blue car had black wheels with a twin-spoke design. If those look familiar, it’s because Toyota offered these alloys for the range-topping $55,250 Launch Edition equipped with all the bells and whistles. It now appears the 19-inch forged aluminum wheels with a matte black finish will live to see the 2021MY.
While the very same Tetsuya Tada has already confirmed a Supra GRMN, it’s likely too early in the life cycle to release the flagship version. A roadster variant has been ruled out, so we wouldn’t get our hopes up too high for the sports car to lose its fixed metal roof later today.
The livestream from Daytona will start at 3:00 PM EST / 8 PM GMT.