2021 Toyota Supra Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Nothing else looks like a Supra. This claim is backed up by the dozen people who flashed smiles, thumbs up, tailgated, and stooped down to peer through the slanted windows. And we guarantee it’s not just because our Supra was red. We had the same experience driving a silver Supra earlier this year. It’s a wild little thing and there aren’t many on the road. The double-bubble roof is a racer’s touch to improve headroom while wearing helmets (which our resident tall man, George Kennedy, has tested). The side windows are so pointy they’re almost triangles. Wide rear haunches and a ducktail spoiler announce the Supra from behind, while a Formula-car-style nose, oversized headlight housings, and a clamshell hood tell the world up front that this is a serious machine.

We wouldn’t call the Supra beautiful. There are too many extraneous vents and slots scattered across the body. That Formula nose sticks out like a swollen knuckle. But the proportions and small footprint are perfect. It’s about 15 centimetres longer than Toyota’s other rear-wheel-drive sports car, the 86, and just as long as a Porsche 718 Cayman. The short tail and long hood, with the driver positioned well behind the car’s centreline, equates to a racy stance that the large wheels and fat exhaust tips emphasize to great effect. For 2021, the Supra 2.0 rides on 18-inch wheels while the 3.0 has 19s. Both use the same staggered width (255/275) and shiny red brake calipers. The cleverest detail is the reverse light. It illuminates as a large grid in the centre of the rear diffuser, just like the rain lights on Formula 1 cars.

The only disappointment is the array of interior colours. Or, should we say, the lack of colour. There's very little colour inside a Supra, save for a reddish tint on the microfibre seat inserts and gray stitching, or blue-tinted inserts and stitching if you order the A91 Edition. Only certain 2020 Launch Edition cars had red leather seats and a partial red dash. We really liked this look, but Toyota goes all-black for 2021. Quality and design are good, especially the curved carbon-fibre trim on the console, and very appropriate for the Supra’s mission and price. They’re certainly better than many Toyota models, with thick padding on the centre console, dash, and doors. BMW switchgear and infotainment are familiar friends. Anyone complaining hasn’t driven a BMW lately—they feel great and are very easy to use. A row of preset buttons and climate controls on the centre stack, a few more on the console, and a simple digital dash are all you see. The 3.0 Premium swaps the microfibre for full leather. Any Supra feels the same, which is most important for the base model—you don’t get swindled.

The Supra’s two turbocharged powertrains are straight from BMW. The 2.0 comes with a 2.0-litre inline-four (255 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque) and the 3.0 has an inline-six with considerably more power than the model year 2020 car (382 hp and 368 lb-ft of torque). Both hook up to an eight-speed automatic transmission with a rear-wheel drive (RWD) drivetrain. A manual transmission may be in the cards in the future, though you won’t be disappointed with the automatic’s quick shifts, throttle blips, and kickdown response. As you shouldn’t—this is the same ZF transmission found in every BMW. In manual mode, the Supra really means it. The transmission stays locked in gear even if you slam the accelerator pedal, which only the raciest cars like Ferraris tend to do. There are only two driving modes, accessed by hitting the large Sport button on the console. A Sport Individual mode can mix the two together at your choice but we found such fiddling unnecessary. Unlike BMW, which has too many modes, Toyota has dialed in the Supra’s responses from the get-go.

The turbo four-cylinder is very strong, very linear in response throughout the rev range, and always smooth. This is the best four-cylinder engine in the world because BMW is an engine company that’s been doing it better than anyone for decades. Since the Supra 2.0 is about 100 kilograms lighter in curb weight than the 3.0, you’ll leap to high speeds without any strain. Our only consternation is the exhaust, which is too muted from the driver’s seat and doesn’t exhale enough burble and pops—that’s the six-cylinder’s job. It sounds good, but we like good and loud in a sports car.

It’s plenty of engine in a car this small, yet the inline-6 is just too fantastic to ignore. We drove the 2020 Supra with the 335-hp version of this same engine. While the four is quick, the six is fast. Like, Helen Hunt escaping from a twister fast. It barks, it bites, and it pushes your neck back. The six is addictive, and if you’re new to the Supra, don’t drive it first. Try the four so you’re not immediately disappointed.

Both cars share the same superb steering. Light with road feel buzzing through the column, the wheel does a great job of communicating how hard the suspension is working as you’re slicing through turns that would make an SUV flip over. There’s balance and grip at work, and if the rear slides out, it’s progressive and controlled. Toyota made several changes to make the 2021 cars feel more neutral and planted, even without the active differential that is standard on the 3.0. Toyota should have made the adaptive dampers optional on the 2.0—they’re unavailable, and their absence shows every time the road breaks up, dips, or slopes to one side. The car never loses composure, but your spine becomes a fifth spring. It’s so stiff you’ll bounce in the seat. You won't feel that pain in the car with the six-cylinder engine. The 2.0 also has weaker brakes, which have smaller-diameter discs with a pair of single-piston front calipers instead of four. This was a bad decision. On a twisty road, the Supra 2.0 won’t be outgunned by the 3.0. But it will be outbraked.

The upside is the Supra 2.0’s stellar fuel efficiency. We averaged 8.4 litres per 100 kilometres after a hard week of driving, which matches Natural Resources Canada’s combined rating and is above the 9.4 L/100 km city rating. Driven with care on a long steady cruise, this BMW powertrain in a car this light can easily improve on the 7.3 L/100 km highway rating by a long shot. The 3.0 has a 10.6/8.0/9.4 rating.

The Supra’s sightlines are poor, which isn’t the problem for a hot sports car built for two people. In a car like this, you expect bad visibility and work around it. The problem is the wind buffeting whenever the windows are down. This is the low-frequency rumble that hurts your inner ears if you open one window in any car at speed. It’s avoidable if you open a second window. But in the Supra, this happens with one window or both windows, halfway down or all the way. It’s most intense between roughly 65 and 95 km/h, which just happens to be the speeds that are most enjoyable to drive with the windows down. How Toyota engineers approved this aerodynamic blunder is most perplexing. It degrades the everyday driving experience, especially the freeing, warm weather experience a sports car is designed to deliver.

With those windows up, the Supra is good at being insulated and quiet. It’s also roomy enough once you’ve acclimated to the small windows. The seats are snug and comfortable, with height adjustment for both driver and passenger (they’re manual on the 2.0 and powered on the 3.0). The interior is simple and distilled to only the most critical information, like the central tachometer, large numerical speedometer, and the climate. Anything else is on the 8.8-inch touchscreen, which can also be controlled by the dial and buttons on the console.

Cargo space is good too, with 290 litres within the steeply raked hatchback and access to that cargo through the two seats. We’d like a cubby underneath the central armrest, but otherwise, the Supra’s layout is great. It gets major points off for the buffeting, which no other car in recent times has managed to achieve. There’s one more concern: Each of the six vents on the fenders and hood are fake. This makes no sense on a sports car where cooling and airflow are paramount. Quite honestly, it’s embarrassing to explain to other sports car owners.

All 2021 Supra coupes have the 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment system that was optional for 2020 and replaces the 6.5-inch touchscreen from last year. LED headlights and taillights, rain-sensing wipers, proximity key, and Bluetooth connectivity come standard—that’s proof the Supra is a Toyota and not a BMW. Auto-dimming, heated power-fold mirrors, SiriusXM, and a garage door opener are included on 3.0, as is navigation with fast online searches and accurate voice recognition, a 12-speaker JBL stereo, wireless Apple CarPlay, and four years of smartphone access for remote unlocking, location alerts, emergency calling, nav map updates, and live traffic. There are no annual fees for Apple CarPlay as there were on older-model BMWs.

The iDrive 6.0 doesn’t have the newer unique features found in version 7.0, such as a digital car key or the ability to record the car’s surroundings with a 360-degree camera. But while having a front camera and support for Android Auto would be helpful, those other frivolities would be silly in a focused sports car like the Supra. The tiled home screen is fast and easy to customize. The settings menus explain what you’re selecting or about to change. The maps are detailed. But the Supra isn’t interested in doing much more. It’s here to make you smile at every turn of the wheel.