When the Engineer Behind the Supra Apologizes for Taking So Long, We Know It'll be Worth the Wait

TopSpeed

By Kirby Garlitos

Published Mar 14, 2018

Let's hope that the Supra lives up to the hype

The Toyota Supra’s launch is taking longer than usual. It’s hard to find someone to blame for all the delay, but Toyota’s Tetsuya Tada, the man behind the Toyota 86 sports coupe and Supra, is stepping up to the plate. The renowned chief engineer is taking responsibility for the Supra’s delay, admitting that the sports car had to be done the “right way” if it was going to live up to the legacy of its predecessors.

It’s hard not to be frustrated by the long delays that have made the wait for the Supra’s return longer. But it is commendable for Tetsuya Tada to take full responsibility for the delays. In his own words, Tada told Drive that Toyota wished that it could have brought back a new Supra much earlier.“We wish to apologize to that it took so long. It's been 15 long years; I am very sorry for that,” he added.

The apology is about as sincere as it gets. The truth is, the wait for the return of the Supra didn’t just start when the Japanese automaker announced its collaboration with BMW. It started the moment the last-generation Supra was discontinued back in 2002. For a long time, Toyota resisted bringing the popular model back for its own reasons.

But, now that it’s coming back, the hype surrounding its return has increased as the years have gone by. On that end, Tada’s right about one thing. Toyota isn’t going to rush the Supra back onto the road without doing all it can to make sure that the new model can live up to the legacy of the nameplate. Rushing it would be unfair to fans of the sports car, and it certainly wouldn’t be fair to Toyota. That’s why Toyota took its time in developing the car, something that may have peeved a lot of fans in the short-term.

Rest assured, it seems that the delays were done with the purest of intentions. That’s something we can all appreciate, if not applaud. So while we continue to wait for the return of Toyota’s iconic sports car, let’s do it with a certain amount of appreciation towards Toyota for taking its time and doing it the right way. Any other way would’ve been cheating the process, and when that happens, the results are often less than what we expected.

On that note, the new Toyota Supra should be worth the wait. Anything less would be disappointing.