Interviews with Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada

[mkivalex]

Isn't it also true that BMW rates their motors much lower than other manufacturers. Like they are closer to the WHP as opposed to the crank HP.

So if we add 10% to the 350 number we have been seeing floatin around and put it at 385 crank HP that sounds pretty decent.

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[Modal170]

Isn't it also true that BMW rates their motors much lower than other manufacturers. Like they are closer to the WHP as opposed to the crank HP.

So if we add 10% to the 350 number we have been seeing floatin around and put it at 385 crank HP that sounds pretty decent.

Notice, BMW would be the one to underrate.

Unless Toyota wants to make it nice for insurance companies, I'd think they would want to show real, concrete numbers of what it can really do.

 

[mkivalex]

True, but would BMW want Toyota advertising a higher HP if they are the same engine?

 

[vb22]

It sounds like AutoCar just gave us the high end of the estimate. 300kg - 1700kg = 1400kg or 3086 lbs. And isn't the torque more important than just hp alone?

 

[Nurburgring]

“I can’t disclose specific figures, but the output of this engine is on a par with that which we have with the F-Series from Lexus,” Tada said.

When he says "output" he could be speaking about horsepower. I wonder why Autocar assumes he means torque. F-series = 467hp. Sounds far fetched but hey... we can dream.

 

[A70TTR]

Just got word back from an engineer over on the other side, and they said the car does not have 400hp+ and that Tada's comment was taken out of context.

As I suspected honestly...

That being said, could still be above 350, even though I think that's still the number it's making.

 

[DevonK]

Tada's "on par" remark may be a reference to a power/weight ratio equivalence; with the Supra being lighter it needs less power to match the Lexus F Series cars.

 

[mas921]

Tada's "on par" remark may be a reference to a power/weight ratio equivalence; with the Supra being lighter it needs less power to match the Lexus F Series cars.

RCF 4048lbs, 467HP. if Supra weighs 3100lbs; that means it packs around ~357HP

 

[vb22]

RCF 4048lbs, 467HP. if Supra weighs 3100lbs; that means it packs around ~357HP

I don't mean to nitpick, but Lexus has the RCF at 3,958 lbs. A differences of 90 lbs.

https://www.lexus.com/models/RCF/specifications

 

[mas921]

I don't mean to nitpick, but Lexus has the RCF at 3,958 lbs.

https://www.lexus.com/models/RCF/specifications

i usually like to get the weight figures from Car & Driver instrumented tests as they weigh the cars themselves

anyways even with 3958lbs, that puts the supra at ~353HP, thats of course assuming if has the exact power/weight ratio of the RCF

 

[vb22]

i usually like to get the weight figures from Car & Driver instrumented tests as they weigh the cars themselves

anyways even with 3958lbs, that puts the supra at ~353HP, thats of course assuming if has the exact power/weight ratio of the RCF

Sometimes medias like C&D and Motortrend and etc get a fully or almost fully loaded model.

A70 has told us it is currently at 350hp.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

https://www.pistonheads.com/features/ph-features/tetsuya-tada-ph-meets/38367

Tetsuya Tada: PH meets
With the Supra making its debut at Goodwood, we sit down with the man behind Toyota's new 390lb ft sports car

When, 15 years ago, Tetsuya Tada was asked to join Toyota's little-known 'Z division', to plan an develop a new vehicle, he assumed it would be the replacement for the Supra.

"The person who brought me in, on his recommendation, was the chief engineer for the A80 Supra, Isao Tsuzuki, and he taught me the ABC of making these cars," Tada told PH at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. "So it was interesting to hear Tsuzuki talking about the concept behind the A80, what was his intent, the emotion, the passion that he put into it, and when I was called into the Z Division I initially thought 'oh, they're going to make a new Supra'."

Turns out they weren't. Tada was called onto something else and, although he did soon work on a new sports car, that turned out to be the GT86, for which he was the chief engineer. He's also now the head of Toyota's Gazoo racing enterprise.

But when PH caught up with him, it was standing next to his latest baby: at last, the A90 Supra Concept, but for the camouflage tape as near as damnit a finished Supra, the brawny two-seat coupe which will finally return early next year.

"We still have another half a year for it to be mature engineering-wise," says Tada. "We're still working on some of the handling aspects and finer details."

What'll it be like, then? "As you can imagine, we've tested many different types of sports cars and we've gone into granular detail," Tada says. "So some cars you would turn-in OK, and as you turn it tends towards understeer, and you have many different handling aspects, but [the Supra], I can say that in all aspects of the corner we've got it completely neutral."

"And this car also is accommodating to all types of drivers. We've been driving this car on the Nurburgring, and let's say you're going into a corner, and you've over-speeded, the adjustments you make are very easy to do."

You might note, as I did, that when you ask Tada to describe what a car is like, it is not speed, performance, braking, that he talks about. He just talks about corners.

He smiles. "I have an analogy for that, actually. One of the biggest appeal points for the GT86 was the low centre of gravity, and that's the reason we have the boxer engine installed in that car. But this car, the centre of gravity is even lower than the car with a boxer engine." Which, given it has a turbocharged inline six from technical partner BMW, whose next-generation Z4 the Supra will be built alongside in Austria, is quite a feat.

There's more. "Body rigidity is twice that of the GT86. I can't disclose any figures, but the torque of this engine is on par with that which we have with the F-Series from Lexus [around 390lb ft]. But you can imagine from seeing the outside that this car is light, is compact, the wheelbase is shorter than the GT86. It's around 200-300kg lighter than the F-Series which has the same torque output."

So although no figures have been directly disclosed, between-lines reading isn't too difficult. "When we decided that we were going to do this," says Tada, "we didn't just want a revival or a rehash of what we had before. What we wanted to do was ask all the Supra fans around the world what was essential that we had in this car, and I tried to look for these conditions. And the answer was clear: inline six, turbo, front engine and rear wheel drive, and this must not change. That was clear. And when we started looking into this, prospectively, a lot of manufacturers had stopped making inline six engines. I think it was BMW which was the only one that was continuing with an inline six."

So the Supra will be a 1500kg or so two-seat coupe with a 3.0-litre BMW turbocharged engine making perhaps 350hp and 390lb ft, rear drive, a limited-slip differential, "and of course," says Tada, disclosing one number in particular, "50:50 weight distribution".

It will also be affordable. "I mentioned body rigidity is twice that of the GT86," says Tada. "That's on a par with the LFA which of course had a carbon body. And we haven't used any carbon in the body of this car; it's steel and aluminium. And that's because as long as we're introducing a sports car under the Toyota brand it must be affordable."

Does that mean, though, that a technical partnership was essential to the cost efficiency? Or just engineering purity? "First of all if I talk about the GT86 it was absolutely correct that we needed a partner to make an affordable car, and that's why we partnered with Subaru to make a feasible business case," says Tada.

"This one's different. The BRZ and GT86, as you know, almost all the parts are the same. Only the colours and the badges are different. But this one I said it was different because we both went in with our separate ideas and both ended up with what we wanted to make, irrespective of each other. So what's interesting is that there weren't any request from the Z4 to say 'can we make this common or these parts common' because that wasn't the basis for the partnership. I think what we've done - the Z4 team and our team - have developed completely independently because we didn't hear anything about their development nor they ours."

Within a few minutes Tada has to climb back into the A90 Supra and drive it up Goodwood's 1.1 mile hillclimb. "Finally I've been able to realise it the dream of Tsuzuki," says Tada, "and bring it to the world. And I feel really happy."

 

[supraboi]

This one is with Yoshihiro Sawa and has more to do with Lexus, but the Supra was brought up towards the end.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/lexus/104068/lexus-boss-hints-at-electrified-f-performance-models

Lexus boss hints at electrified F performance models
The next stage in the development of the Lexus F performance brand could be electrification, says president Yoshihiro Sawa

Lexus may have to consider expanding its F performance sub-brand to include electrified powertrains as well as traditional petrol engines – and this could even extend to a bespoke F hybrid GT, the company’s president has revealed.

Yoshihiro Sawa admits that creating a stronger emotional connection with buyers could be the next step in building Lexus’s position as a true rival to German premium manufacturers. And he says motorsport activities, such as Lexus’s GT3 sports car programme, and its F sub-brand can play key roles in this.

The F models to date – IS F, RC F and GS F – have all used petrol V8 power. But Sawa believes the division will have to embrace different powertrain choices in the coming years. And intriguingly, he suggested that one possible home for a hybrid F powertrain could be a standalone F GT.

“F is very important; with F we have to think of our own original way,” said Sawa, speaking during his first visit to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. “One solution could be a pure F GT car, which could be a hybrid with an electric motor and a strong engine, giving a different kind of drive feel. We don’t stick to V8, V10, twin-turbocharged; they’re important but we’re looking at the future. We’d like to find a way to connect to the next era.”

“I think that now, we’re in a transitional period. At this moment people say EVs are trendy but three years later, who knows? People like the sound, the dynamics [of combustion engines]. I think we cannot stick to the one solution when it comes to providing emotion.”

Lexus’s latest creation, the urban-focused UX small SUV, could be considered a more natural candidate for a pure-electric version, Sawa admitted. But he added that this would be part of a range of powertrains, and said that Lexus is trying to work on. “We do think about it,” he said, “but Akio Toyoda [boss of Toyota] wants to provide the freedom of mobility everywhere – not just in the city but also in the jungle, or the desert. We can look to EV but also hybrid, plug-in hybrid, fuel cell and normal petrol engines also.”

“We will introduce an EV but on top of that we’re searching to decide which kind of EV will be lovable. It needs to have a luxury feeling too, because that is expected by our customers.”

Sawa said that Lexus’s ‘spindle grille’ front-end styling had helped to create more of an emotional response to the brand – even if that means splitting opinion. “Some people really love the spindle grille,” he said, “and some people don’t like it at all. That’s okay. The rate of our sales growth has gone up since we introduced the spindle grille so while we know that some potential buyers don’t like it, many more are coming into our brand.”

The next generation of Toyota Supra made its dynamic debut at Goodwood, but Sawa declined to say whether Lexus would have enough access to the project – a joint effort between Toyota and BMW – to consider using its underpinnings for a driver-focused model of its own. “I can’t speak about that,” he stated.

 

[2JZ-No-Sh*t]

^The return of the Lexus SC?

Can someone please photoshop a Predator face onto the new Supra?

 

[Modal170]

^The return of the Lexus SC?

Can someone please photoshop a Predator face onto the new Supra?

Oh ho, Lexus, what do you have in store? I remember someone saying since the lfa and lc, that tech will be trickling down to the other cars.

TLDR: God Bless you Akio Toyoda

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