If you’re anticipating Toyota’s Supra revival co-developed with BMW will be a raw, back-to-basics sports car—a grown-up GT86, if you will—you may want to recalibrate your expectations. If insiders who spoke with with Autocar are to be believed, Toyota’s upcoming flagship coupe will utilize hybrid power…and will only be available with an automatic transmission.
Spotted testing at the Nurburgring (where else?), sources close to the British auto mag say the interior seen on the Toyota Supra test mules feature BMW switches, a BMW infotainment screen, BMW HVAC controls, and most crucially, a BMW automatic gear lever. Autocar goes on to say that the Supra and its Z4 twin will be hybrid four-wheel-drive affairs, incorporating tech from the Toyota TS030 Hybrid Le Mans race car.
A hybrid next-gen Supra is not completely out of line, when one considers a similar hybrid BMW sports car already exists, the fact that Honda’s 90s halo car revival came in hybrid form, and the rumors of Mazda preparing a similar vehicle.
If the hybrid proposition proves to be true, the likelihood that this car will be offered with a stick and three pedals is slim—doubtlessly to the chagrin of purists everywhere.
The Supra-Z4 twins (or “Zupr4”, I’m coining it right now) will be built on BMW’s carbon platforms that currently serve as the base of the i3, the aforementioned i8, and 7 Series. Keeping in line with each car’s lineage, the Z4 reportedly will be a convertible, while the Supra will made as a hardtop only. The BMW variant is rumored to show its face at Pebble Beach this August; if true, we’ll likely see the Toyota around the same time.