Actually, let's be honest here, they are most likely the worst Toyota ever built.
These are my top 10 reasons for hating the mk3 supra. How do I know them so well? I worked on them for nearly 2 years, I drove both RHD and LHD mk3's with all sorts of different engines, stock and modified. I've spent a lot of time wrenching on them, and man do they suck badly. Let's begin:
10. Racing History: Let's be honest, there's really nothing special here, Bjorn Waldergard won one event with the MK3 supra in a Beijing Rally, and a few British fellows ran it in BTCC for a while. No real pedigree here.
9. Steering Angle: This is straight up a joke, it can't be real, no way it's even considered safe or functional to have so little steering lock for daily use. You think I'm kidding, but that's full lock below.
8. Weight: This really should be the #1 reason why there's no point in driving an mk3 Supra for any sort of 'sporting' purposes. What's that? you've never known what the weight of a mk3 supra was? Pictured below is a vehicle that weighs nearly identical, and actually produces more power.
(Note: 3800lbs, that's right, the CK short bed, short cab, not only weighed 3800lbs, but it actually produced 230hp and 300ft/lb of torque. Although the 1JZ variant is comparable)
7. Aftermarket Styling: Yes it's a slick looking exterior, simply put, it's the only selling point of the car. However, the aftermarket stuff? yeah, look below...
6.Targa Top: So you have an oval, pretty strong shape, egg's are 3d ovals and resist deformation pretty well. Then you cut a huge chunk out of it. Now you've got an easily crushable "C" shape. Thus is the Targa roof. How bad is it for chassis flex? Toyota actually had high grade, long threaded allen bolts to hold it square when in. When out, people started putting in targa supports to help reduce the horrible flex.
5. Steering Stablizer: The whole Geometry of the MK3 Supra suspension is fucked, and to help reduce bump steer, and ultimately any sort of driver feedback that's left after the hefty power steering, was a shock, bolted to the steering rack to help reduce...something. Road feel mostly, or resist the horrible bumper steer associated with #4. This Stablizer, much like the Cressidas (Although they had different front suspensions and shared the rear) resists and sometimes completely removes the affects of caster during cornering. It reduces the speed of turn by adding a dramatic amount of resistance.
4.Suspension Dynamics: These are just plain FUCKED. For some reason, Toyota decided that going from a single lower control arm McPherson strut setup, that had proven extremely well in the Corolla's, Celica's, and Celica Supras of the past, had to go, and in place a needlessly complex, and albeit poorly designed multi-link/double wishbone setup in it's place. You want to know how bad it is? Camber actually becomes positive on compression and negative on extension. Seriously look vvv.
3. Cock Riders: This isn't about the owners. The amount of people floating around the internet praising the mk3, simply because of it's loose relation to that of an mk4 Supra most of them having never owned a Supra in their lives. Although this makes me curious of the dynamic of buying and polishing a turd.
2. 7M/1G: Pretty weak sauce. So you buy a 3800lb driveway ornament and want to go fast. In North America, your faced with the 7M, and Japan, luckily enough got the 1jz, however, they too got the 7M and even worse, the 1G. Every other M series engine was decent, the 7M screwed that right up. It's head design is the fault. People will tell you it was a bad factory gasket, or under torqued bolts. However, even with those factors coverd, the real core of the issue was a bad head design. Getting past the common, and often debilitating issue of 7m's blowing gaskets (try pushing that thing!) The power of a 7m is a joke. Remember that Toyota publishes not the wheel horse power, but the crank. By the time that inline 6 delivers it's 200hp N/a to the rear, it's about 160hp, got a turbo? Roughly 190hp. Brutal for that amount of weight, but look out! There's even a worse motor: the 1GGTE. Although not plagued with head gasket failures and people thinking they can build the ultimate 7m, only to fail like the next guy, the 1ggte had it's own issues, spinning bearings, and well, being 2 liters! Such a tiny inline 6, and it needed twin turbo's just to make the 210hp. Unless your supra screwed and end up with an n/a 1GGE at 150hp.
And the Number 1 reason MK3 supra's are garbage! *Drum Roll*
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1. Burgandy:
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Hahahaha. Really guy, half of these 10 reasons are not even reasons. You obviously dont know shit,are a terrible mechanic, and like to take it in the rear. To make a blog like this to hate on a community is rediculous. Yea it has its problems, what 20 year old car doesnt. And to compare it to the 1500 is ridiculous, maybe perhaps you forgot to mention that is the chevy truck in which they placed a 454 big block in it, of course it will have more power displacement than a stock 3 liter 6 cylinder. Proud MKIII owner, it is an awesome car,the 7m is strong, replaced the headgasket/torqued it down to the CORRECT torque specs and havnt had problems since.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment Quinn. I love the A70 Supra, it is a blast to drive through the mountains, and remains stable and quiet the entire time. Pleasuring your senses with it’s retardedly comfortable interior, and more than capable suspension design.
While I don’t believe I have quite covered all of your concerns with the car, nor to I expect to change your mind, I think my list will provide a relatively accurate counterpoint.
10. Since when does a car need racing history to be considered above garbage? The Supra’s weight was probably it’s biggest downfall when it came time to race them, but it wasn’t without some highlights in it’s day. There weren’t may vehicles out at the time that were considerably better in it’s class. It wasn’t really designed to be a track car, so in my opinion, finding a failing in that category is largely irrelevant.
9. The steering angle on the car is lower than many other vehicles, but hardly abysmal. Turning radius on the A70: 35.4ft. Turning radius on the A80: 36.0ft. To say it isn’t as high as some other cars is true, to call it unsafe is ridiculous.
8. Yes it is most certainly heavy, and while it definitely limits it’s “sporting” abilities, the cause of the weight adds to the vehicle in many other ways. It is quiet and smooth. It is a luxury touring vehicle, not a sports car. Anyone who claims it to be a sports car is wrong. Also, the 7M-GTE produced 230 or 232hp depending on year. It did it with 183CID instead of 454CID as well.
7. Aftermarket styling? This is a reason to hate a car? Seriously? I’ll agree that a significant portion of body parts available for the car are ugly, but I can make that statement about almost any car. There are some that do look good though (Greddy front bumper, Kaminari side skirts), just like on many other cars.
6. Clearly the targa top was not added to the car to increase rigidity. It was added as a touring feature, and it’s fantastic to drive around with the top off, but that would be up to the owner to decide. If you don’t like the targa, buy a hardtop. Why does the M3 come in a convertible version?
5. The steering stabilizer was used on 86-88 models only, only to add to the luxury feel of the vehicle. Tons of cars use a similar system, what’s the problem? Lack of road feel? Again, we’re talking about a 3600lbs touring car here, that weighs that much because of luxury features like climate control and sound deadening. Clearly a stabilizer is well within those design parameters. Am I wrong? (89+ models added a more advanced progressive power steering system which made the need for the stabilizer less apparent).
4. The suspension is a fairly standard double wishbone front/multilink rear setup. It is almost identical to many other cars, including the A80. It does NOT become positive on compression. It does NOT become negative on extension. This would be painfully obvious if you ever actually looked at it’s camber curve when raising/lowering the vehicle. The vehicle pictured is a modified RWD rally race car, they clearly have some odd suspension requirements, because that is NOT standard alignment angles for being off the ground.
3. I’ve driven quite a few A70 and A80 Supras, they have a very similar road feel. I don’t personally own either type, but generally speaking, I don’t think A70 Supra owners care too much about the A80. I mean there are of course the owners who can’t afford an A80, so they get an A70 and pretend it’s the same thing, but it isn’t. The A70 has a unique look and I personally know people who prefer the styling to the A80, who are not interested in buying either of them.
2. What did other cars at the time have for power? 300ZX had 205hp, Corvette had 230hp, Ferrari 308 had 240hp. It’s right in the same exact power range, is it not? The 7M’s head design is almost identical to many other “successful” Toyota engines (namely the 4A-G, 3S-G and quite similar to the JZ (albeit with smaller diameter valves). The head gasket issue is an interesting topic for sure, and the reasons for it have been mulled over for years and years, but I’ve also seen and built several 7M’s without issue for many thousands of kilometers without fail. Metal head gasket and ARP bolts/studs and you’re good to go. If you fail at building a 7M, you fail at building an engine. It’s not some sort of magical death engine. I’ve seen many a failed 1JZ/2JZ to think the 7M is some sort of anomoly.
1. Burgundy?!?!? FFUUUUUUUUUUU. Worst. Colour. Ever. Hmm… you may be on to something here with this garbage comment.
On closing, your entire arguements are baseless as on most of them you don’t compare to anything else. The only one you make a comparison on is the suspension, which shows how clueless you are.
11. Supra owners are over sensitive little girls.
“I own a mk3 and could make 10 better reasons. lol.” Yes please, I believe a constructive debate was requested a few comments ago. Please look to Jeff Langes response, that’s how adults discuss things.
To “IFTheTruthAboutYouAndYourUmmShopWereKnownHAHA” I don’t even know what to say, I’m not sure this is the tactic I would use against anyone I knew. It would make me feel like a douchebag and a bit of a coward.
Anyway, is anybody but Jeff going to dispute the info or is it going to be pages of butthurt and personal attacks?
Man…..I’ve seen your “Shop”, your work practices and the cars you work on. If others here only knew the truth and could see the same thing you’d be torn to shreds and publicly laughed at man. Your DD is just above trailer park level dude.
But I’ll let you live your little fantasy here and keep making a fool of yourself.
So Sad, but so funny.
Wow, we can pretend to be anything on the internet can’t we, unfortunately some of us pretend very poorly.
Take care.
(And you know me man, and all I can say is I am laughing so hard it hurts)