Like death and taxes, Internet comments asserting that the 2020 Toyota Supra isn’t a “real” Toyota seem inevitable. On the surface, the accusation seems justified. After all, the Supra and 2019 BMW Z4 share the same platform, engine, and transmission. Hell, even the switchgear is similar. So where exactly does the BMW end and the Toyota begin?

Well, according to Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada, Toyota’s influence can be found from the ground up. I recently got a chance to climb behind the wheel of the 2020 Toyota Supra during a ride-and-drive event in Virginia, and Tada-san was in attendance to help answer our questions, providing clarification on the nature of Toyota’s partnership with BMW during the A90 Supra’s development.

Building A “Pure” Sports Car

During the pre-drive presentation the morning of the event, Tada-san spoke on how the Supra project came to be. He seemed eager to shed some light on what drove the fifth-gen Supra’s development.

With the help of a translator, Tada-san began by talking about how Toyota initially approached the A90 Supra project. At the outset, Toyota wanted to work with BMW for its line of six-cylinder engines, rekindling a relationship that started with an effort to build a series of diesel engines.

“Tada-san is very well aware of, let’s say, on the Internet right now a lot of people are just saying ‘Oh just put a shell on top of an available BMW platform, and it’s not like that. If you take a look at the previous Z4 specs, you’ll notice that the new specs are completely different, so it’s been re-thought from the ground up.”

From the word go, Toyota’s intent was to create a focused performance car. “ is world class, the shortest wheelbase, widest track production sports car, so is very proud of it.”

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Later at dinner, Tada-san was able to elaborate a bit further. After getting to go-ahead from Toyota headquarters to develop a new sports car with BMW, Tada-san first had to pin down the nature of the relationship between BMW and Toyota.

“We talked about all kinds of things. It was very difficult for both teams to see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues because the development process was completely different for both companies. They tried many times, but there wasn’t any specific progress that was made, and for us at Toyota, we were intent on making a pure sports car.”

Exterior Dimension Comparison

Measurement

2020 Toyota Supra

2019 BMW Z4 M40i (difference)

Wheelbase

97.2 inches

97.2 inches (identical)

Overall Length

172.5 inches

170.7 inches (- 1.8 inches)

Overall Height

50.9 inches

51.4 inches (+ 0.5 inches)

Overall Width

73 inches

73.4 inches (+ 0.4 inches)

Overall Width (including mirrors)

N/A

79.7 inches

Track Width (front)

62.8 inches

62.8 inches (identical)

Track Width (rear)

62.6 inches

62.6 inches (identical)


This desire to create a “pure sports car” was the chief motivator behind the new Supra’s development, and Toyota’s ambition wouldn’t be satisfied by any existing BMW product. When BMW and Toyota launched their new partnership, the new 2 Series and 4 Series had just been released, and Tada-san thought that both were not as exciting as they could be, especially given BMW’s sports car history.

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“They told , ‘What’s the purpose of making a hardcore sports car?’ That came up constantly in conversation.”

“Even when you talk to BMW staff, they will say, under their tone, ‘We’ve never built a pure sports car before.’ ‘What are you talking about? You have lots of M cars, lots of performance cars.’ They said, ‘No, no, no, for us, those are highly modified passenger cars in our view. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve only had the M1. And there’s been a lot of time in our hearts since the M1. And so you at Toyota, you’re talking about pure sports, maybe we should use you guys as a trigger and create a good convertible sports car and a coupe sports car project.”

BMW and Toyota decided to set their crosshairs on the Porsche Boxster and the Porsche Cayman, with BMW taking on the former with the Z4, and Toyota taking on the latter with the Supra.

As such, Toyota convinced BMW to collaborate on something entirely new. Both teams worked together to create the Supra/Z4’s underlying platform, with Toyota bringing a greater focus on performance to the project.

“And so we all got together and we really discussed the current wheelbase, and the dimensions, and the center of gravity, and that outline was a really collaborative effort on both sides.”

Once the basic package was determined between BMW and Toyota, the two teams split entirely. For years, there was no communication between the two development teams.

purely and honestly and earnestly just worked on Supra, and was able to have that leeway with the company, and the tuning and the setting of the Supra, engine and transmission, body solidity, and vehicle weight distribution, suspension… all the tuning, all the setting was given to , and he was the one that really gave it the flavor.”

Toyota spent five years developing the Supra, working with the goal of creating a “pure sports car” every step of the way. By comparison, BMW sought to build a sports roadster. While the two might share the same platform, calling the Supra “just a rebadged Z4” is far from accurate.

By our approximation the underlying platform is a 50/50 split between Toyota and BMW. The transmission is from ZF, and can be found just about everywhere in the industry, including in the Alfa Romeo Giulia, Aston Martin DB11, Jaguar F-Type, and Lamborghini Urus.

Performance And Drivetrain Specs

2020 Toyota Supra

2020 Toyota Supra

2019 BMW Z4 M40i

Engine

turbo 3.0-liter six-cylinder

turbo 3.0-liter six-cylinder

turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder

Transmission

eight-speed automatic

eight-speed automatic

eight-speed automatic

Horsepower

335 hp

382 hp

255 hp

Torque

365 lb-ft

369 lb-ft

295 lb-ft

0-60 mph

4.1 seconds

3.9 seconds

5.2 seconds

Top Speed

155 mph

155 mph

155 mph

Weight (lb) Per Horsepower

10.14

9.01

12.89


The electronic differential is from BMW, as is the suspension design, but the tuning for both is 100 percent Toyota.

What’s more, regardless of who built what, all this ignores how the Supra actually feels to drive. And in the end, isn’t that what matters most?

Further Reading

Read our review of the 2020 Toyota Supra

Read our full review on the 2019 BMW Z4.

How Much BMW DNA Can Be Found In The 2020 Toyota Supra?

14 Little-Know Facts About The 2020 Toyota Supra A90

The 2020 Toyota Supra Is Surprisingly Small In Person