Fairlady Was Never a Supra Contender... Until Z?

ZDreamer

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For decades, based on the "gentlemen's agreement" between Toyota Supra and Nissan GT-R development, the ##0Z was never a serious Supra contender until 2021. Why did it takes 8 generations of it to be able to say "Supra killer" or alike?

Being an armchair quarterback, I think 80% of the "Supra killer" features are based on the stylings. Nissan decided to take it off the Twinkies diet.

*Flame shields on* ... lol

Z.jpg
 

RicerX

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For decades, based on the "gentlemen's agreement" between Toyota Supra and Nissan GT-R development, the ##0Z was never a serious Supra contender until 2021. Why did it takes 8 generations of it to be able to say "Supra killer" or alike?
Story time!

First, the Supra never became its own model until 1986. The Z had already been on the US market for 16 years by that point. If you want to reach ALL the way back to the origins of the Supra, you have to go back to 1979 for its US market debut as a trim of the Celica. It debuted on the Japanese market in 1978, nine years after the debut of the 240Z. At the time of the Celica Supra's debut in Japan, it was originally developed by Toyota to compete with the Z. So at that point, the onus was on Toyota to make a Z killer (which it did not do - it was underpowered compared to its Z counterpart at the time). The Z outperformed it and outsold it on the global market.

When the Celica-Supra came to the American market, its top trim was over 40hp less than the Z31 300ZX Turbo at the time. However, the Japanese Z31 Turbo was the most powerful standard power output in a Japanese production car at its time and well above the Celica-Supra - they weren't in the same class. It was never until 1986 that the Supra got close to the Z in terms of performance and packaging, but that didn't last long as the Z32 Twin Turbo debuted in 1989 and completely outclassed the Supra GA70 and edged out the Supra JZA70 by over 10% power output difference.

The A80 was when the Supra truly competed with the 300ZX in the 90s. They were often neck and neck with each other with the Supra edging out the Z in certain performance facets. The rise of the SUV killed both cars on the American market, and the Supra outlasted the Z32 in Japan by two model years when both were out of production by 2002.

By 2003, the 350Z was born, and Toyota did nothing with the Supra. The 370Z was released six years later, and Toyota still did nothing with the Supra.

Now, BMW has built a new Supra that vastly outperforms a 10 year old 370Z that had been selling throughout the Supra nameplate's dormancy, and now Nissan has responded with the new Z. We'll see if it is a "Supra killer" or not, but there is speculation of that because, for the first time in the history of both nameplates, Toyota has built a Supra that begs for a response from Nissan instead of Toyota building the Supra as a response to Nissan.

TLDR;

"Why did it takes 8 generations of it to be able to say "Supra killer" or alike?"

- We are only on the 7th generation of Z.
- The Supra didn't exist for the first two generations of Z
- The Supra didn't perform well enough to be on the Z's radar for the Z's third generation.
- The Supra did great against the Z's fourth generation.
- The Supra didn't exist for the Z's fifth and sixth generations.

The Z hasn't needed to kill a Supra until 2021, hence zero point in referring to it as a "Supra Killer". Terrible post is terrible.
 
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ZDreamer

ZDreamer

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valid points but still begs the question: Why is it necessary for many people (here, youtube, and online media) to compare to the Supra? The Supra must at least have more values than the current model (i.e. 370Z) to be judged that way, right?

And thank you for the scientific response approach. ?
 

Captain Drew

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valid points but still begs the question: Why is it necessary for many people (here, youtube, and online media) to compare to the Supra? The Supra must at least have more values than the current model (i.e. 370Z) to be judged that way, right?

And thank you for the scientific response approach. ?
Because the Supra is the closet competitor on the market today. /thread
 
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ZDreamer

ZDreamer

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So nobody thinks the Z is a better looking than the Supra?
 

bboypuertoroc

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So nobody thinks the Z is a better looking than the Supra?
¿lolque?

I think the Supra looks GREAT (as opposed to many here) but it's nowhere close to the Z. I'm pretty sure 99% of everyone here thinks the Z looks better.
 

fliplover

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¿lolque?

I think the Supra looks GREAT (as opposed to many here) but it's nowhere close to the Z. I'm pretty sure 99% of everyone here thinks the Z looks better.
I just saw my first Supra in the wild over this past weekend. To me, it looks much better in person than it does in the pictures I've seen online. Stiil not my cup of tea, but I can see why others may like it.
 

TaroBaapG35

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Exterior wise, I think both cars look good (in their own respective ways, with the Supra being more curvy, and the Z being a bit sharper), but interior looks, the Z wins. Plus no manual option in supra :D, so Z > Supra
 

2JZ-No-Sh*t

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Zupra's rear is the only good thing about the car imo. Front looks weird AF with blobfish face and the side looks odd with the short wheelbase and cheesy fake door vent.
 

jdm-rhd

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I just saw my first Supra in the wild over this past weekend. To me, it looks much better in person than it does in the pictures I've seen online. Stiil not my cup of tea, but I can see why others may like it.
here is a zupr4 i saw in the wild. took a pic while getting gas off i-30 west of ft. worth. front end was wrecked...

IMG_20210710_085238069.jpg
 

therumblewagon

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I saw a lowered white one w/ what looked like CCW-esque wheels on it and I gave it a good, long stare down of an assessment (I was at a red light, he was turning left from perpendicular street - regret not taking a photo) and I just...can't bring myself to call it a Supra.

The jump between the IV and the V is too drastic, and unlike the C8, which at first I wasn't wild about, but after seeing several of them out and about, it's grown on me a lot, it was a drastic jump for the worst. I mean no offense to anyone who likes them/has one, but it's just not my thing.
 
 





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