Interviews w/ Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada (Post Launch)

Turbro

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I wouldn't expect any less toxicity from MKIV owners
MKIV owner here and admin on SF. I respect Tada, sorry you can’t see passed the worst owners. please don’t lump Us all together.
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https://jalopnik.com/why-the-2020-toyota-supra-has-a-bmw-inline-six-and-why-1834540861

Why the 2020 Toyota Supra Has a BMW Inline-Six (and Why the 86 Had a Boxer Engine)

After nearly a decade of buildup, the 2020 Toyota Supra is finally here. And the question that usually comes when you talk about it is this: Why? Why the BMW 3.0-liter turbo inline-six engine and platform? Why not an all-Toyota setup to headline this famous car’s comeback story? I talked to Tetsuya Tada, the car’s chief engineer and Toyota’s performance boss, and got some illuminating answers about car packaging, noise regulations and even why the other Toyota sports car has a Subaru motor.

(Full Disclosure: Toyota flew me out to Middleburg, Virginia for the Supra’s launch, and also paid for my lodging, food and booze.)

And by “talked to” I mean “cornered at dinner while the poor man was just trying to eat some soup” ahead of driving the new Supra at Summit Point Motorsports Park for the car’s American launch.

But it turns out Tada is a gracious fellow, and eager to talk about the birth of a car that’s very much his baby. He likened the new Supra’s arrival to his son being born.

(He’s also a bit of a character, too; turns out he’s a hardcore Pokémon Go enthusiast who spent part of his day in Washington D.C. ahead of the Supra event trying to catch some, including up near the White House.)

I’ve been covering the new Supra’s development pretty much the entire time I have worked at Jalopnik, seven years now. That’s seven years of wild car magazine rumors, spy shots, concept cars, more concept cars, our own renderings based on internal documents and now, finally, the car’s debut. To say I’m eager to finally get behind the wheel is an understatement.

Tada is well aware of the long gestation process, too. He’s been with Toyota for more than 20 years and was slated to work on the Mark IV Supra’s replacement back in the 1990s, a car that sadly never happened. He went on to develop compact vans and then the 86 joint venture with Subaru. That’s given him a lot of time to know what he wanted to do with the Supra if he ever got the chance again.

As such he’s been eagerly watching the reactions online to the car he’s been wanting to do since the late 1990s. He’s aware of some of the criticisms around the new Supra’s $50,920 price, BMW underpinnings and automatic-only powertrain. But he’s also convinced they’ve built a legitimate Porsche Cayman S-fighter and that fans will come away impressed.

That’s why, he told me through an interpreter, he’s eager to clear up what he feels are some misconceptions about the new Supra.

The biggest one, he said, is that it’s just “a BMW parts bin car”; he strongly objects to this characterization, even if it is one we ourselves have made based on a close look at the motor and chassis involved.

Tada said Toyota and BMW worked very closely on early stage development of the Supra and its twin the Z4, but they had similar aims. This time around, Tada told me, BMW wanted to make the Z4 a more athletic sports car than it had been in the last go-around. That’s why it’s nearly 300 pounds lighter than the old six-cylinder Z4, more aerodynamic, wider and with a shorter wheelbase.

All of these, Tada said, are things Toyota had heavy input on. And later on the two companies parted ways on all manner of tuning, including suspension and steering, such that Toyota folks at this event who have driven both say they ended up feeling quite different.

“BMW was set on another convertible,” Tada said. “Toyota was set on a coupe. We had to have a meeting of minds. BMW admitted the old Z4 wasn’t much of a pure sports car.”

Eventually they settled on taking aim at Porsche’s mid-engine Boxster and Cayman, two extremely worthy opponents. But why go with BMW in the first place?

“It wasn’t a matter of lowering costs,” Tada said. At least not entirely, though that did happen. “The Supra had to have an inline-six. BMW had a good inline-six.”

It would’ve taken years for Toyota to develop such an engine from scratch, he said—and “another factory. How realistic would that be?”

Even if it meant a new inline-six engine family (or perhaps even a modular one, just like BMW and Mercedes are doing) for applications in other cars—like various Lexus models, I suggested—Tada said the long-term applications for pure, conventionally powered gasoline engines are increasingly limited. Toyota, like all automakers, is investing heavily into electrification and autonomy, he said. Re-tooling everything just to make a straight-six didn’t sound to be in the greater strategy.

And in the end, it all comes down to packaging.

“Aside from the Supra, there aren’t too many cars in existence now where a inline-six would better than the engines we’ve already built,” he said. “In the past lots of automakers had straight sixes. You should know exactly why” there are fewer of them these days, he said. “It’s a very difficult engine to package. You lose space for the driver and the passenger.”

That’s one of the reasons the new Supra is a two-seater, he said, unlike its predecessors that were 2+2s and more along the lines of grand tourers.

To make the new Supra an all-Toyota project, Tada said, would have pushed development back two or three years and possibly put the price tag over $100,000. He didn’t want that, he said. While its $50,920 base price isn’t cheap, it’s still relatively attainable.

“To make the car so expensive would defeat the purpose of a Toyota sports car,” he said. He said he wanted the Supra to be something that normal humans could possibly afford if they worked for it. “That’s why it doesn’t use exotic materials like carbon fiber.”

Speaking of costs, I joked about some of the wild rumors we’ve heard about the new Supra over the years, like how it was once said to be a mid-engined hybrid.

Tada said he was similarly “bombarded” when the Toyota 86 and its twin the Subaru BRZ came out. Fans wondered why a Toyota sports car should use a Subaru Boxer engine. But the answer was the same, he said.

“Everyone thinks it was for a low center of gravity, but that’s not true,” he said. “We always wanted (the 86) to be a 2+2. And Boxer engines are very short,” ideal for such an application.

“The packaging for the Supra is different,” he said. “It has its own messaging and its own purpose.”

But cost-savings did happen by working with BMW. As the sports car market globally continues to decline, I think we’ll see more arrangements along these lines, as we have with Mazda and Fiat and even Toyota and Subaru. Joint ventures are a good way to make sports cars still happen as they become increasingly niche. The downside, I suppose, is that fans will have to live with sports cars that are a little less unique than they used to be.

“We considered it heavily,” Tada confirmed. But why it went a different path than the new NSX isn’t surprising. “It came down to battery weight, and cost. We wanted to keep it accessible.”

I’ve been following Tada’s work for a long time now, reading nearly everything I could find on the development of both the 86 and the Supra. Through all that, and in talking to him, I get the sense that he’s a man who knows exactly what he wants to accomplish as an engineer. And if he can’t find what he needs off the company shelf—for the performance he wants, the lap times he wants, the price point he wants and so on—he’ll go get it somewhere else rather than allow his vision to be compromised.

After all, Toyota and Lexus do have beefy V6 and V8 engines and rear-wheel drive platforms. If they could’ve produced the sports car he wanted, in precisely the way he wanted, I think he would’ve used them—especially given what a proud Toyota company man he seems to be.

But selling this exact vision will take some convincing on Toyota’s part, as the car’s been met with plenty of skepticism right out of the gate. Then again, enthusiasts are never truly happy; even if this thing weighed 2,500 pounds, had 500 horsepower, a manual gearbox, featured the second coming of the 2JZ engine and cost $30,000, people would still find reasons to complain.

I closed by asking Tada what aspect of the new Supra he was most proud of. He gave me a solid enthusiast answer: the noise.

“The sound of the engine,” he said with a grin. “Not just when you’re on the throttle, but when you’re off. There are very stringent sound regulations these days. One generation before, there were a lot of cars that had a really good sound. But in the new Porsches and so on, everyone is restricted by these new regulations... in Europe and America. Every year, everything gets more strict.”

Being able to create the sound on the Supra, he said, “is almost a miracle. It may not even be possible on future production cars.”

Not a pleasant thought, but a plausible one as the world goes electric.

Everything Tada told me here made sense, but will his 20-year vision for a new Supra add up to a driving experience that was worth the wait? I plan to find out soon.
 

Bryster

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Seeing that Tada is a Pokemon fan, i wonder what he thinks of Gen 1ers?:popcorn:
 

2JZ-No-Sh*t

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MKIV owner here and admin on SF. I respect Tada, sorry you can’t see passed the worst owners. please don’t lump Us all together.
:p

FasTTurbo; said:
Normally I would scold you for posting in this thread randomly and of apparently unconscious brain spasms. However I welcome any conversation that draws less attention to this fake supra.
FasTTurbo; said:
I am sad for the crash of this bmw. Hit the wall so hard the emblem looks like a toyota now. Shame.
 

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https://www.automobilemag.com/news/2020-toyota-supra-chief-engineer-tatsuya-tada-interview/

5 Questions with 2020 Toyota Supra Chief Engineer Tatsuya Tada

AM: So we’ve spent most of the day driving the new production-spec Supra, but we also were lucky enough to drive the prototype last year at Jarama. Can you give us a quick rundown of what’s changed since then?

Tetsuya Tada: A lot of minor updates. The tuning of the shock absorbers, the steering feel was revised. And at that time [in Jarama] the cars were all taped up and camouflaged and everything. And when you take everything off it, it actually does affect the aerodynamics slightly, and it improves stability to where you could feel it.

At higher speeds?

Yes. But actually you’d be surprised at how much it will go into the low-speed range also. Another change involved the seats that you were in [at Jarama] weren’t the final version. The bolstering capabilities of the seat were much less. So this time you should have had a better feel as you were going around the track. And of course the engine-software updates. There have been many of them since then. And also the transmission tuning. So it’s gone through several updates.

So now we know what’s been updated for production since the prototypes. What sort of changes or variants can we expect looking forward as the Supra matures through its life cycle?

Every year, we’re going to be looking to make improvements. And of course, all kinds of variations like when you have a Porsche—Porsche always comes out with the GTS, you know, all kinds of versions and variants. The Supra, we’d like to think of it in that context. And if we don’t do that, actually, it’ll just get forgotten right away—if you just release and you’re done with it. You have to keep it going.

With the Supra clearly positioned against the Porsche 718 Cayman, will there be a four-cylinder version of the Supra to compete with the similar Cayman?

Tada: Well . . . if the American market demands it, then that’s possible, but from an engineering standpoint, anything is possible. [Leaked documents suggest a four-cylinder car is indeed coming our way—Ed.]

We’ve already combed over the car looking for Easter eggs, and have come up with surprisingly few. Are there any hiding in plain sight?

Actually, the S in the Supra logo, that wasn’t just a designer coming in and drawing it. The Supra was developed on the Nürburgring, and at the eight-kilometer point on the ’Ring, that [shape is] the actual corner, the S. So even for just an emblem, there was a lot of thought that went into it, to give it that heritage.
 
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Captain_Kirk

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https://www.carthrottle.com/post/how-stalled-bmw-negotiations-nearly-killed-the-a90-toyota-supra/

How Stalled BMW Negotiations Nearly Killed The A90 Toyota Supra

At the launch of the new A90 Toyota GR Supra, chief engineer Tetsuya Tada detailed the car's rocky start in life

17 years after the MkIV version went out of production, there is - at last - a new Toyota Supra. But early on in the joint venture between BMW and Toyota, which has also given us a new Z4, the odds were stacked against both cars. A well-timed change in management was key to the whole endeavour, as explained by Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada at the launch of the car in Madrid.

The A90 Toyota GR Supra’s story can be traced back to a phone call Tada-san received during the launch of the GT86 in May 2012. He was to be dispatch to BMW’s headquarters in Munich to discuss a collaboration.

“At that time nothing was specified about what car we’d be working on - there was nothing said about it being a sports car,” he said, adding, “It was just a feasibility study.”

Tada-san, however, already had in mind exactly what the potential project could be. “On my way to Munich on the plane, I distinctively understood that this was a message for me to make the new Supra”. For him, it was all about the engine. “The heritage of the Supra is the inline-six, and at that time the only manufacturer with a high-performance inline-six engine was BMW,” he said.

While launching GT86, it was clear to Tada-san that among dealers, fans, and many others, the appetite for a new Supra was huge. Joining forces with BMW was a way to quench the thirst.

“I had a good feeling about the meeting so on the way back I wrote a really easy-going report towards [Toyota] headquarters that said we might be able to do something because it was such a nice atmosphere,” he recalled, but concluded, “Boy, that was a mistake!”

A year into the negotiations, no progress had been made, leaving BMW and Toyota at an impasse. Tetsuya Tada had committed himself to making a “pure sports car” to succeed the MkIV Supra, but the then-development boss of BMW, Dr Herbert Diess, was doubtful about the business case.

While understanding Tada-san’s urge to make a new Supra, Diess was keen to steer him away from pure sports cars to more profitable options. The key moment came went Dr Diess left BMW to joining VW.

BMW management protocol meant Diess’ subordinates went too, with replacement Klaus Frölich bringing in his own team of people. “This change had been pivotal in making this car happen because the guys under Mr Frölich had been crazy car guys,” Tada-san said. “They really took on to what we were trying to achieve…This is when it [the project] turned to the better for us.”

From here, everything “progressed quickly”. It was soon decided that BMW would make a roadster and Toyota a coupe, inspired in part by Porsche having the Boxster and Cayman siblings in its range. BMW was going to gun for the Boxster, while Toyota’s target was the Cayman.

The pair were to be built on a new, joint platform with a very short wheelbase, a wide track and a low centre-of-gravity.

After BMW’s “extensive simulation work” showed that the intended dimensions would work, a 2-series based test mule with a shortened wheelbase and widened track dubbed ‘Full Runner’ was built. After significant testing all across Europe, the Z4/Supra in this form was given the go-ahead.

This set the platform and the “suspension elements” in stone, after which point all ties - design, R&D, the lot - were cut between BMW and Toyota, allowing the two parties to go their separate ways and create two different vehicles based on the same ingredients.

The resulting cars, the Z4 and the GR Supra, are finally here, but they almost never happened.
 

Bryster

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For all the flak the Supra gets for being being mostly BMW, BMW was really noncommiting.
 

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https://newsroom.toyota.eu/2019-the-new-toyota-gr-supra/

MESSAGE FROM TETSUYA TADA, CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE NEW TOYOTA GR SUPRA
• Single-minded approach to create a “fun-to-drive” sports car
• Achievement of the “golden ratio” determined the overall package and dimensions
• Pure antithesis of toda y’s industry trends


Tetsuya Tada, Chief Engineer of the Toyota GR Supra, gives his personal insight into the project and what he aimed to achieve with the new car.

The Supra legacy

Being asked to make a sports car that offers the ultimate, pure driving pleasure felt like a mandate from heaven, telling me to “make a Supra!” The GT86 helped broaden the scope and appeal of Toyota’s sports cars. Next, I needed to deliver a car that offers a seemingly limitless sense of control, a car that will meet expectations and delight even hardcore fans.

In making Supra, I insisted on visiting enthusiasts’ clubs around the world to talk to owners of previous models. I asked them what they thought the minimum requirements should be and the response was always “a straight-six turbo and front engine/rear-wheel drive confi-guration”. It was pretty clear and I had more or less anticipated this. The key point was to keep that combination intact.

The new Supra is not simply a revival, though; only those core engine and rear-wheel drive elements have been carried over. As the name Supra suggests, I was determined to deliver a “supreme fun-to-drive” car that could only be made in the modern era.

A deep dive into driving pleasure

I repeatedly told the development team that I wanted them to hone any aspects of the car that stimulate the driver’s senses or instincts. I said that it wasn’t necessary to achieve perfect scores for every aspect, we just need to make sure the car is fun to drive. Anything that goes against that can be disregarded.

It was a key factor to make the car a two-seater. Driving quality is 90 per cent dictated by a car’s basic packaging – the tread and wheelbase are particularly important. In fact, it’s the golden ratio between these two dimensions that delivers the best driving quality, and I was determined not to sacrifice this. But the only way to achieve the golden ratio was to make Supra a two-seater. Even though I was warned not providing four seats would reduce the number of cars we might sell, I politely but firmly stood my ground. For me, it was all about delivering a pure sports car with the ultimate driving pleasure.

The front engine/rear-wheel drive package

With the new Supra we did everything that could be done with front engine/rear-wheel drive packaging. For example, the speed through a slalom course is about 20 per cent faster than our original target time. And it’s not just a fast car, it’s exhilarating.

The antithesis of simple transportation

The auto industry is said to be undergoing a ‘once-in-a-hundred-years’ revolution. Technological innovations such as EV electric power, autonomous driving and Artificial Intelligence are turning the car into a high-tech ‘mode of transport’. With that being the case, cars might no longer need to be fun to drive. But I am not sure we should just accept the impact this is having on the role of the car. In that sense, Supra might be the antithesis of society’s current car-related trends.

Of course, an EV can also be developed as a sports car, and we already have racing categories such as Formula E. Electric motors may in fact offer faster acceleration than petrol engines, but that’s just a matter of specifications. Surely acceleration won’t be exhilarating if you disregard the feeling and resonance with the driver’s senses.

When it comes to feeling, I can confidently declare that the acceleration from the Supra’s straight-six turbo feels truly exhilarating. I am sure people who have never known, or have forgotten about the pleasure of driving a car will enjoy an amazing experience and realise that cars really should be fun to drive.
 
 




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