A90 Toyota GR Supra could "easily" set Nurburgring lap time in under eight minutes – chief engineer Tada

The new A90 Toyota GR Supra‘s chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada is confident that the reborn legend is fast enough to set a Nurburgring lap time in less than eight minutes.

Tada, through an interpreter, told Road and Track “we haven’t had an official time attack yet.” He explained that the car will likely run into its 250-km/h speed limiter on the long straights, but added “one day, perhaps, we cut the speed limiter and try the time attack. But just driving it as it is, it’s really fast. On the old course, it’s very easy to break eights – 7 minutes 50 seconds, 7 minutes 40 seconds. It will do that easily.”

The Supra shares the same 2,470 mm wheelbase as the G29 BMW Z4 (some 100 mm shorter than the 86), and with a wheelbase-to-tread ratio of 1.55, it is said to be one of the smallest mainstream sports cars, and more agile. It also has a lower centre of gravity compared to the 86, a perfect 50:50 weight distribution and a steel-and-aluminium structure that is 2.5 times stiffer than the carbon-fibre-bodied Lexus LFA.

Under the bonnet, the top Supra RZ gets a 3.0 litre straight-six engine, producing 340 PS from 5,000 to 6,500 rpm and 500 Nm between 1,600 and 4,500 rpm. It does the century sprint in just 4.3 seconds – for now, an eight-speed auto serves as the only available transmission, although a row-your-own manual gearbox may be a possibility in the near future, as mentioned by assistant chief engineer Masayuki Kai.

Apparently, German publication Sport Auto ran a pre-production Z4 M40i (output is identical to the top Supra) on the Nurburgring and clocked a lap time of 7 minutes 55 seconds. Considering that the hardtop-only Supra is both lighter and more rigid than the German roadster, perhaps it could indeed be quicker around the track. What do you think?

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