The Toyota Supra is making headlines left and right, and as the unquestioned star of the 2019 North American International Auto Show, it’s only fitting that we uncover more details about Toyota’s new sports car. In somewhat of a surprising twist, Toyota is limiting the Supra’s availability in Europe to just 900 units in the first year of the car’s production. It’s a small volume for a region that has a healthy amount of Supra fanboys, but the good news is that Toyota will also throw in access to an exclusive experience programme and money-can’t-buy rewards for those lucky enough to scoop up the 900 units earmarked for the market. In addition to the promised programs and rewards, Toyota will also offer the first special edition version of the Supra — the Supra A90 Edition — exclusively to the European market.

You can digest this development in two ways. You can look at it from a glass-half-empty point of view and lament why only 900 units of the Toyota Supra are going to the European market in its first year of production. It recorded 1,001,662 sold units of Toyota and Lexus models in 2017 and followed that up last year with 1,035,400 sold units. 2018 was a banner year for Toyota in Europe, thanks in large part to a three-percent growth in a stable market compared to its performance in 2017. Sales of hybrid electric cars, in particular, exploded in 2018 with 480,800 sold units, an 18-percent increase from its year-on-year figures.

So if Europe is a healthy market for Toyota and Lexus, why is the Japanese automaker only sending 900 units of the Supra in its first year of production? It’s possible that the sports car doesn’t have as big of a following in Europe as it does in Asia or North America. Toyota didn’t say the reason, but it’s also possible that the automaker is limiting production of the sports car in its first year and the allocation in Europe is representative of the maximum number of models it can send in that region without cutting into the allocations of other regions. Whatever the case is, 900 units seems like an awfully small allocation for a market that has been good to Toyota in recent years.

Now, let’s look at it from the glass-half-full perspective. There’s no going around the fact that 900 units represent a small piece of what we believe is a big pie. When you’re in that market and you know that only 900 models are headed your way in its first year of production, you’re going to want to get in on that action. Hype and demand immediately increase, and, by the time, 2020 rolls around, a lot of people who missed out on the first-year production will be eager, perhaps even desperate, to get to their hands on one. It’s an age-old supply and demand trick. Deprive them of the supply and the demand rises. Once more supplies come in, it turns into a mad rush to score the product.

It’s a sound strategy, but it also comes with a lot of risks. What if the Supra doesn’t live up to the hype? What if, God forbid, it stinks up the joint and gets slammed with bad reviews across the board? That’s unlikely to be the case because, as controversial as the Supra has become, it’s a well-developed sports car with the chops to live up to the history and pedigree of its nameplate. What if, though, right?

On the bright side, Toyota is throwing a bone — or is it 90 bones? — to its European customers in the form of the Supra A90 Special Edition. Inspired by the Supra prototype that made it debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year, the Supra A90 Special Edition wears a Storm Grey matte paint finish and comes with a set of matte black alloy wheels and an interior awash in fancy red leather. It’s based on the Premium trim of the sports car so expect a host of standard features to go along with trim-exclusive goodies like a 12-speaker JBL premium sound system, driver’s Head-Up Display, wireless mobile phone charger, and storage and lighting packs.

Toyota hasn’t announced pricing details of the Supra A90 Edition, but we know that the entry-level model is listed at £52,695 in the United Kingdom. That converts to a whopping $67,400 based on current exchange rates. Only one version of the Supra will be available in Europe, and it happens to be the same spec as the U.S.-bound Supra. That includes a 3.0-liter inline-six cylinder engine that produces 340 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

If you’re one of our European friends who has waited years for the Supra’s return, this is a bittersweet moment. But you can get past it if you act fast. Who knows, if you’re up-to-date on when the Supra launches in your neck of the woods, you have the chance to not only buy a Supra but, if you’re fast enough, score the special edition Supra A90 Special Edition.

2020 Toyota Supra Specifications

Further Reading

Toyota Supra Returns After 21 Years with BMW Engine; And it's Not Cheap

Read our speculative review of the 2020 Toyota Supra

Read our full review on the 2020 Toyota Supra GR.

Check out our full review of the 2014 Toyota FT-1 Concept

Read our full, in-depth review of the 2019 BMW Z4