... rounded at the front, slim in the middle , and the rear rounded as well !
In my opinion most Toyota's look great from the front , but they lost the plot on the arse end ! , not so with the supra.
Fit and feel.
*************
Getting into the car is a bit of an operation, especially ... Read review
Advantages: Performance, rear wheel drive, brakes, handling. Disadvantages: Expensive parts, inner body panels not protected.
I bought this car in 1996 , after being left a few bob by my lovely Gran ( god rest her soul ), this was another one of those "man things " I just had to have ! .
I'd always noticed these cars passing by in the opposite direction, and was always impressed by their almost female shape, ...... rounded at the front, slim in the middle , and the rear rounded as well !
In my opinion most Toyota's look great from the front , but ... ...not so with the supra.
Fit and feel.
*************
Getting into the car is a bit of an operation, especially if you're a fat bugger, ( unlike myself ), being so low , and the driving position, you physically have to bend yourself into the thing.
Once sat in it , first impressions are that everything fits around you nicely, all the controls, clocks, gearstick, pedels, are spot on .
There is a control ... more
I bought this car in 1996 , after being left a few bob by my lovely Gran ( god rest her soul ), this was another one of those "man things " I just had to have ! . I'd always noticed these cars passing by in the opposite direction, and was always impressed by their almost female shape, ...... rounded at the front, slim in the middle , and the rear rounded as well ! In my opinion most Toyota's look great from the front , but they lost the plot on the arse end ! , not so with the supra.
Fit and feel. *************
Getting into the car is a bit of an operation, especially if you're a fat bugger, ( unlike myself ), being so low , and the driving position, you physically have to bend yourself into the thing. Once sat in it , first impressions are that everything fits around you nicely, all the controls, clocks, gearstick, pedels, are spot on . There is a control button to squeeze the seat around you, holding you firm while driving hard, push the same forward , and you'll find the seat will push a nice support into your lower back !!, this button is easy to reach without taking your eyes off the road, as with all the other controls.
On the road. ************** Once underway the car feels very competant, the steering is light , and has a lot of feedback , the suspension is firm, the grip is fantastic, from the 225/50/16 standard tyres, Original spec tyres were Goodyear eagles. You can pay any were from between £70 - 150 for the tyres of your choice. Motorway crusing is a breeze as this car is fitted with 'cruse control ' as standard. I often used to travel up north to visit relations, ..... flick the cruse button to on , hit the ' set' button on the steering wheel, and whatever speed you were doing , this will be memorised. The car would speed up on hills , and slow down to maintain the set speed !. This will be cancelled by application of brake or clutch.There was also a nice foot rest for your left foot, when not using the clutch. I often had both knees up by the steering wheel, and impressed my passengers by pressing the ' Acc' ( accelerate) button, again on the steering wheel, while overtaking other cars at high speed!. The car turns into slow tight bends very easily in the dry, some times , when the roads are wet , slowish roundabouts can have the back end sliding out,( I've heard the turbo version is even more hairy in the wet ) but is controllable with the throttle, and much fun !!, Very high speed cruising, ( private roads ,of course ! ) feel stable and safe, unlike other cars I've driven at a ton +, lesser cars feel as, if you moved the steering a bit too quick, it would roll and crash! not so with this one.
The brakes !! *************** My god, this car had some superb brakes. One of my party tricks was to accellerate up to about 110mph, ( private road ! ) then, without warning , stamp my foot , full force , on the brake pedel. This resulted in all my escort driving mates shitting a large brick .... due to the massive G forces induced on their collar bones from the seat belts. The car pulled up straight as a die, no skidding, no wandering, total safety. Once a dog ran out in front of me , and if weren't for the superb ABS system , I'd have surley killed it.
The engine. ************** A superb piece of engineering ,early ones had 204 BHP ( non Cat ), I know it had a reputation for head gasket probs, ( when it first came out the factory used the wrong torque settings to bolt the head down) this was later revised , also the recomendation of a copper head gasket was included in the fix. At first glance the engine looks complicated, but the Japs are very logical in their design of things, once you remove all the pipes out of the way, the engine is very easy to work on. Even the cam belt is easy, only prob' being crank pulley nut , which is a bastard to get off ! ( I've got a nack for this ! ) . Changing the spark plugs requires removal of the inlet manifold twin tubes ( no probs' ) . A mod' was done on the oil filter, early ones had large type, now are much smaller, to help oil pressure on start up. Higher milage engines like 15w/40, or even 15w/ 50 oil, they'll sound sweet on cold start up. Standard 10w/40 or thinner oils ( eg Magnatec) dont bother, you'll hear knocking noises and start panicking !!!. I've also seen a few Supras start blowing on the exhaust manifold, near the bulkhead, closest to the driver, sometimes the stud will break off due to corrosion. Other points to watch out for are front lower swivels, these are MOT bread and butter fail points, dealer will charge around £130 a piece for these, and are not usually available through motor factors. Standard antifreeze is 'Red' type, dont mix with the usuall ( blue/green type ) as they are not compatable. Another point to remember is... ( as with all cars ) make sure to use the air con , all year round , to keep the seals lubricated. This will save you a small fortune when in the summer , you use the air con' for the first time and find only hot air coming out ! . ( because all the R132 gas escaped up into the ozone layer ! ) You'll soon find that , because it's Supra , you'll be paying a premium for bits , this is why many second hand examples are pretty ropey.The body. ********** These cars were designed to be on Jap roads ,so anything over 3 years old has to be got rid of !!, ( we see them over here as 'grey' imports) so very little under seal is used to protect the inner body panels, so older models will rot like buggery, especially around the ( female) rear end, inner and outer wheel arches will suffer, spare wheel carrier, and steel brake pipes will be on your mot fail sheet . Early examples used to have steel inserts to the centre plastic trim strip that runs around the whole of the body, the steel will rot causing the trim to buckle, and look crap. Later ones were solid plastic. ( for example ..... the very front trim, which includes the repeater...... about 2ft long will cost you around £50 . ) And as with all Jap cars..... Dont let them stand around , out of use for a long time, as the brakes will seize on leading to more work for people as myself, luvly jubbley !! . Boot space is very limited, due to the spare wheel ' hump ' which intrudes into the small boot area. The seats do fold down though which helps a bit if you need to carry something more than the shopping. Rear tailgate can rattle on higher milages due to the 2 rubber bump stops wearing out, next to the sharpest rear corners of the rear 1/4 lite windows.
Summary. *********** Fantastic car , despite a few problems, If you want to carry 2 adults in the back , make sure they cross their legs , when sat in , and bend their heads down to fit in , 2 kids will be OK . The back seats look so inviting, but this is only cosmetic, ...... but then , it IS a sports car. Will soon be a classic I'm sure , so if you've got one, look after it !!!!.
Advantages: Cheap sports car Disadvantages: Wind noise
In my life of car owning, I have driven many cars. I have owned a Supra twice. The first was a non-turbo and to be honest although a well spec'ed car at the time (1986) it only packed 6" of power. However since 1998 I have owned a mk3 Supra Turbo. I have now promoted myself to 12". Male sexual symbol maybe, but what a piece of automotive engineering. This car was way ahead of its time. With all the added extras that it comes with, the most effective ... ...land (by far). I jest. On a serious note, this car is entertaining, exciting and satisfying to drive. For the amount of money I spent on this car I could have bought 1/20 of a Ferrari. Out on the open road there isn't much that will touch this car. Even around country roads, the handling is impressive. I still haven't pushed it too far. The engine is bullet-proof. Even with the renowned head gasket problems, this is still a cheap car to run. I had ...
garibaldi 29.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo
...these cars! The mark 2 Toyota Supra is an awesome beast. The 3.0 litre, 24 valve, turbo charged V6 engine give almost Ferrari performance at Ford Escort prices. Get the 4 speed automatic version for added refinement with very little performance loss over the manual gearbox. Now adays you can pick up this motorway burner for as little as £4,000 for a 10 year old model with 70,000 on the clock which is great value when you consider what you get and ... ...electric windows and mirrors, air conditioning and CD/Radio/Cassette as standard in all Supras with some coming with heated seats too. The massive bonnet hides away the awesome engine making it look slightly American but with a definite Japanesse slant, and with it being Japanesse you can count on excellent reliability. Most of the body panels are plastic/fibre glass so you can forget about rust too!
OK it's not as nice as the latest mark 3 Twin ...
Mikie 20.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo
Advantages: superb performance Disadvantages: can be costly
This is an awesome car with 320 bhp this car will suck you into the back of your seat! I owned this car for about a year and i have to say it saddened me to get rid of it but I had to make way fot my mazda rx-7 that I was having imported from japan.
The drive of the car is bumpy if used to potter around town,it likes to be drove fast and hard which on todays camera ridden roads is probably not the best idea,but suspension is very stiff so if you ... ...comprises of a 3.0 24 valve straight six twin-turbo charged lump,transmission comes in a six speed manual or auto box but less fun is gained by the latter. It is a rear wheel drive motor so it can be very hard to use in wet.
The reliability is average on these once one thing goes wrong everything seems to follow and parts are not cheap,and with the added sting of the insurance this can be a very costly car to run.
If you can afford the extra this ...
beetlevw 18.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo
Had the car for just over a week and boy does it tick all the boxes ! Great acceleration awesome looks and everything works ! still in japanese spec so limited to 112mph but it doesn't take long to get there. For a 1993 car you can't go wrong. There is not much on the road that comes close from 0 - 90 mph and this is in standard spec. I can't wait to get it souped up to about 500bhp and remove the limiter which will then allow me to perhaps drag ...
andrew48 22.05.2009
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo
Advantages: rwd, handling, comfort Disadvantages: headgasket problems, rust problem
I brought a D reg one of these in 2002 as a love the shape of the older model. Although I read up on them and saw that they had head gasket problems I thought why not risk it. For the first 3 or 4 months the car was great, it was the non turbo model so it wasn't the fastest in the world but the drive was very sturdy and the car was very economical i could easily achieve 35 mpg. I was doing a lot of motorway driving back then and it was excellent ... ...roads it was very good handling too. After 3 or 4 months though the worst happened, the temp gauge shot up so I turned the engine of quickly to investigate. When I started it again I realised the header tank bubbling. DAMN!! Headgasket, this is very typical for this car so it is always worth checking to see if it is done because it is around £500 to replace it. I would buy another one of these cars though because I love the shape and the engine and ...
fast4unow2003 08.12.2006
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo
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Advantages: Reliable as a lamp-post, great handling, sexy shape, great performer. Disadvantages: Poor turning circle, parts expensive
? sports cars!
My previous experience in the Toyota range was a 1986 3.0Supra (3-MGE) non turbo.
I find the two cars similar in many ways but, this one is smaller, lighter and handles a whole lot better than my old beauty that suffered the ravages of the metal moth, and ended up as a 1.5 ton metal cube! , even in my trade (motor mechanic) there?s a time to call it a day on expenses.
First impressions.
Looking at the shape and pleasing curves of this vehicle will have you growing ever more pleased with your choice of obtaining this car, it grows on you big time, and to me it kind of reminds me of a shoe shape.
I look at it at and want to drive it, fast!
It is low; it sits just right and is hard to find fault if viewed from any angle.
The clean lines that flow around the body are classic sports car design, and in my opinion blast ...
mr.blue.sky 29.06.2007 (01.07.2007)
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