If you’ve not been to the Tokyo Auto Salon, you’d be forgiven to assume that Makuhari Messe would be a three-day fest celebrating the legends – think R32-R34 GT-Rs, the A80 Supra, FC-FD RX-7, Evo/Subaru, Silvias and Hachirokus, NSX and “real VTEC” Type Rs, you get the drift – and an assortment of kei cars.
Last year was our first time there, and we were rather surprised to find that the icons were rather hard to come by. Unlike us, the Japanese respect the legends but live in the present. Which is why almost every booth had a Suzuki Jimny, and the FK8 Honda Civic Type R came in second as the most popular TAS 2019 exhibit. The undisputed car of TAS 2020 is the Toyota GR Supra.
The A90 was everywhere we looked, acting as a canvas for purveyors of aftermarket performance parts, bodykits, wheels and everything else. It even served as a “project car” for the students of Nihon Automobile College. It sure didn’t seem like the A90 was being treated like a pariah for sharing parts with a BMW roadster and being made in Austria.
We start with the biggest of them all, HKS. The legendary tuner had three cars in its booth, all GR Supras. The one with the famous HKS Super Oil livery is the drift machine of Nobuteru Taniguchi. This one no longer has the BMW B58 3.0L engine under the hood, but the 2JZ-GTE from the previous Supra. Famous for being tuneable to crazy hp, this 2JZ has over 700 horses.
To be used by Taniguchi in the D1GP championship and FIA Intercontinental Drift Challenge, this drift car comes with HKS’ own widebody kit, Advan Racing GT wheels, a huge GT wing and a deep dish Nardi Classico steering wheel.
More interesting are the wingmen. The white A90 in you see below (and in the lead pic) is the HKS GR Supra Aero. As its name suggests, this is a showcase for HKS’ widebody kit for the street. Much like Taniguchi’s drift car without the livery and big wing (neat ducktail instead), you can see the details a lot better in white, contrasted with forged carbon. Those red wheels are 20-inch Advan Racing R6 items.
The subtle black car is the HKS GR Supra Street, which is a showcase for HKS’ performance parts. As tested by Manabu ‘Max’ Orido, the parts (for the stock BMW engine, not 2JZ) include a full HKS Super Turbo exhaust system, fully adjustable HKS Hipermax suspension, HKS Mastery ECU and a cold air intake with HKS Super Power Flow filter.
Interestingly, we also spotted a special tool kit for the A90 by Tone, as this Supra, which is of course a sister car of BMW and made in Europe, won’t play well with typical tools designed for Japanese cars.
Another prominent Supra at TAS was a satin green monster by Tachi Oiwa Motor Sports. Not just a concept, TOM’S Supra is a 99-unit limited edition priced at 14.23 million yen (RM570k).
The tuner synonymous with Toyota didn’t just do an engine swap, but worked on the BMW six-pot to squeeze out 460 PS/579 Nm, which is an extra 120 PS/79 Nm over stock. They did it by changing the turbocharger and intercooler, ECU tuning and a high-flow exhaust system. To match, TOM’S fitted its Advox fully-adjustable suspension and upgraded the front brakes to Brembo six-pot calipers grabbing 380 mm discs.
The aggressive body styling is quite unique – clearly fatter than the already muscular stock A90, but smoothly executed. The voluptuous side profile is nice, but the rear will be the most common view for most cars on the road – here, there’s a big park bench wing sitting on top of the original integrated ducktail, plus vertically stacked exhaust tips, two on each side.
The lower body and big diffuser are all in carbon, accented by a lime green pinstripe. If you’re wondering, no those aren’t typically Japanese wheels but Vossens, which is more BMW than JDM. Easier PCD and offset match, perhaps. We also see TOM’S bucket seats made by Esqueleto.
Other notable Supras include the “Monster GR Supra” exhibited by Work. This is drift champ Daigo Saito‘s work machine, and it’s famous as the first A90 to have 2JZ power. I prefer Max Orido’s A90 though, done up in the iconic Advan livery just like his old Supra. Is there any car that won’t look good in Advan livery? Next to the Yokohama stand was Masato Kawabata’s Toyo-sponsored drift car, the big bro of the 86 that we got to see at TGR Festival Malaysia.
While team mate Farid was lusting over TOM’S LE, I was attracted to the one by Varis – all show no go, fits this author. The bodykit specialist was clever in drawing attention with a modded A80 Supra, done up in a “Rothmans-style” livery on the Varis Supreme kit. Next to it was a dark grey A90 with the new widebody Supreme 90 kit. Much aero, very fierce. They also had a non-wide A90 there, but might as well go all the way, right?
Once the euphoria of the GR Yaris launch subsided, Tokyo Auto Salon 2020 became a Suprafest with some sideshows – we’re not complaining, just lusting.
GALLERY: HKS GR Supras
GALLERY: TOM’S GR Supra
GALLERY: Varis GR Supra, A80 Supra
GALLERY: Max Orido Advan GR Supra
GALLERY: Daigo Saito Monster GR Supra
GALLERY: Various modified Supras
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Rebadge, rebadge, rebadge, rebadge, rebadge.
Malu, malu, malu, malu, malu.
What is malu is the fact despite 20 years of bailouts of RM20 billion and 20 years of losses of billions per year, until today, just become a rebadger of China car.
Totally rebadger. And the only local product that sells, uses a Hyundai Transmission AT
That is MALU MALU MALU.
Rakyat suffered for 35 years with high car prices to protect this car company. Otherwise, today, we can buy a Camry for RM60k.
And today, this company can only rebadge
well said. Losing money is the lowest thing we can tolerate. Lagi teruk if it is the rakyat’s money
Go see who is the majority looking for help from APKK. You will know, they are cool with not having money and borrowing from kawan kawan and ah long
Too many borrow money from AhLons to buy cars to showoff during CNY but couple of months later, Ah Long comes asking me to tarik their cars.
30 years Mitsubishi tried to transfer knowledge and technical know how to abang2 but they said “Kami tak faham”
So, this is why we are so backward.
Mitsubishi only transfered knowledge how to bankrap and get sold off. Kesian jugak Jepunisku.
Oh yeah. Mitsubishi were trying to transfer the whip and chain locks technology plus the slave labouring knowhow but you see, Proton workers are too ethical and respectful of fellow human beings to comprehend what these Japs were trying to teach. Once Proton management board found out, they kicked them Japs all the way back to Nippon and disallowed them to come back for 10 years. Eventually they returned back via Tan Chong Motors, another bloodsucker of their employees. I’m glad Proton didn’t follow their culture of slavery.
If a bigger car company can rebadge, tak malu pun for a much smaller company to rebadge.
The only malu is for a company to be doing only rebadging for 30 years.
That is MALU MALU MALU MALU.
Rakyat suffers from high accident and mortality rates with their unsafe and flimsy cars.
And today this company continue to do rebadges only. MALU BETUL!
APKK is who mainly? They are the ones tak ada malu kalau muflis
Those who borrows to do business that fails then shamelessly borrow from ahlongs, and last-last run away leaving their families to find MCA help to settle with the ahlongs but they still die-die vote DAP. Tak tau le ada org jenis yg tak kenang budi.
The car look so good I hope Proton fanboy don’t come here and jeles about it. Be happy john, and enjoy the holidays
Jap fanboys say Proton should be ashamed for rebadging X70. So does it mean Jap fanboys should be even more ashamed for Toyota rebaging Supra?
Nope. 2 diff cases.
Shame is the fact that Geely bought Proton, Lotus and Proton’s Shah Alam land worth RM5 billion (with GDV of RM12 billion) all for RM170 million.
That is shame. Buy all three for RM170 million. That is what you call malu
Toyota kemaluan besar on display for all to see. Even Jepunis fanbois malu wei!
I will be so ashamed if I don’t make any money to feed my family. Those who don’t feel ashamed got no dignity
That is not the biggest shame. Biggest shame is feeding them with haram money earned from being a paid PH trooper. Makan tak halal, keluarga lagi baik lapar dari makan haram.
Proton fanboy start to equate themselves to BMW and Toyota. This is the main problem. Syiok sendiri jaguh kampung
Never seen them do that. All I see here is Perodua fanboys thinking their crap cars are equal to Lexus. Now that’s your syiok sendiri delusions.
@vader, no one here said perodua is like a Lexus. don’t spread fake news yea
@Halim. I can show you one such fanboy with that crazy statement in this blog. It isn’t any fake news as you claimed.
Toksah nak jual maruah sekadar utk duit. Duit tu tak halal, hidup dgn duit tu pun tak halal. Nak cari keje tu tak susah asal jangan tamak nafsu dgn duit. Maruah tu lagi penting dr duit tau.
So many of Toyota’s kemaluan terbesar on display. All the praises should go toward BMW, Toyota only lazy goyang kaki tidur while claiming glamour from BMW.
You are right. Just like the Proton X70. Whole car is the Boyue.
And the Saga. 50% of the car is the Hyundai AT Transmission.
That is kemaluan besar. X70 make up about 60% of Proton’s total sales and the Saga is 30% of total sales.
Malu betul orang asing buat kerja
Tak malu pun. Proton is a small company so partnership with another company is normal practice.
Toyota so big still want to rebadge? Buat malu saja. Even fanboys dunno where to hide their faces when others point out the BMW parts. Malu saja.
Copy paste: “Proton started out in 1985 and within 20 years they could develop and produce their own cars and engines.
Yet Perodua 30 years on and still relied on Daihatsu and Toyota to rebadge their cars and use their engines.
How come in the same period Proton by themselves could come out with their own cars and engines, but Perodua with Daihatsu and Toyota support still continue to rebadge their cars and use their engines? Answer is hard work & Proton innovation.”
You are right. Just like the Toyota Supra. Whole car is the Z4.
And whats worse. 100% of the car is the BMW engine and AT Transmission. Even worse their 86 is a rebadged Subaru BRZ.
That is kemaluan besar. Supra make up about 40% of Toyota’s total sports cars sales and the 86 is 60% of total sales.
Malu betul orang asing buat kerja Toyota Jepun.
Toyota is making profits. Proton has lost RM20 billion in bailouts. That is the beza. Pity abang2 cannot see this, that is why they are the majority in APKK
Toyota making money but gives unsafe cars that always got recalls. I think that is highly unethical to take customers money and put their lives at risk. Better to be losing money and give safe cars to customers like Proton did. That show a responsible business.
Kemaluan paling besar adalah National car is now a China Car.
Itu lagi malu wei
Even this, jus tlike ECRL, HSR and MAS….all being sold to foreigners.
I think we cannot do business. Tak pandai biz jangan lah cuba
Yessss.. we don’t know business thanks to our benefactor for 22 years but who cares, now he is back to gives more business to loses. Thank you PH!
Big decision is decided by bean-counter, to save money on Toyota end, thus copy-paste with BMW parts.
The good old Japanese car golden era is long gone, and won’t happen esp when money dictates over automotive passion.
The white color wide-body is too ugly to my eyes.
They are CO-DEVELOPED. Which technically means the Z4 is a toyota if supra is a bmw. Do you educated peoples ever read?
Co develop is like saying X70 is Boyue if Boyue is a X70. Am rite?
Boyue 100% same body with x70. Supra totally different body altogether to z4. Not one same body panel.
It doesn’t take a lot of engineering to re-skin a car with different body panels, but it does take a lot of engineering to do a correct RHD conversion as done on Boyue into X70.
Nope. Wrong on that too
https://paultan.org/2020/01/24/toyota-gr-supra-instrument-cluster-from-bmw-report/
must be freaking affordable in japan ^^
ah beng rejoice!
The only saving grace for this gaijin supra is the bodykit.
Without the bodykit, it is just……sigh.