racer01
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My car is a premium package bought new (for MSRP!) at the beginning of August from a local dealer. I have put 1200 miles first on street, and only changes are decent engine oil and high temp brake fluid.
I have done many track days over the years, but not so much recently with only 1 or 2 track days per year for a while now. This car just really begs to be driven on the track, so I decided to sign up for a âHooked on Drivingâ event at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) last weekend running in group C (solo advanced).
I struggled to find much info about the car (thanks Jackie Ding for the single most comprehensive place for Supra track info!) so just decided to try the car nearly dead stock and see what works and what doesnât.
First off, the car is an absolute joy to drive on the trackâŠvery well balanced and just fun to drive. Short gearing and great torque makes it easy to find a gear (or two) that suits every turn, and the car is easy to rotate in the slow turns, but surprisingly stable in the higher speed stuff.
In no particular order here are a few observations
-tires wear surprisingly even at VIR, and not the immediate outer tread block destruction I used to get on M3âs without camber plates. Probably mostly due to VIR being easy on tires, but nice for the first track outing nonetheless
-engine oil and coolant stay very close to street levels on the track using the secret menu. Iâd see low 100âs C coolant and just a little higher on oil (115-118 C ) on 90 F day. https://www.supramkv.com/threads/unlocking-secret-menu.2025/ This car has some massive coolant radiators (2 big ones and 2 smaller ones) and I love they was the cooling system on this car works to heat up the oil quickly on the street (hot coolant warms up the oil through water to oil heat exchanger) but still keeps temps in check on the track.
- canât hear the engine at speed, mostly due to wind buffeting with both windows down, so you really have to be aware of what gear you are inâŠ.found myself counting gears in my head like I do in a motorcycle without gear display.
-car pull pretty strong dead stock up to 110 mph or so, then starts to struggle a little once you get into 5th and 6th. Its not bad, but definitely feels properly quick coming out of the slower corners with short gearing and good torque, but doesnât pull down the long straights with the big dogs. I was seeing high 130's indicated on the back straight and low 130's mph on the front straight but was letting out early to keep brake temps in check.
-car seemed to get about 9-10 mpg on the track, and I didnât get any fuel starve but never started a session with less than 2/3 tank or so. I tried to keep the tank 2/3 full or more not knowing if these cars will fuel starve, and just watching Jackie Dingâs last video from Road America shows the car *might* have an issue with fuel starve at lower fuel levels.
-brakesâŠ.this is the only part of the car that wasnât spectacular all weekend. For dead stock and street pads I really canât complain, but the pedal is immediately long and mushy even before brakes are hot. They would stay pretty consistent with concerted efforts to baby them (letting off 2/3 way down each straight and floating speed into NASCAR (turn 3), South bend (turn 10) and use the hill as much as possible in turn 11 coming into Oak tree. Doing all of this I could run a whole 20-25 min session without overheating the brakes, but the pedal just felt really mushy all weekend. Doing a full lap on Jackie Ding kill mode would immediately put the pads to a temp they started smearing pad material on the rotor, and the pedal would drop to what felt like the floor in the hard braking zones. Not confidence inspiring. Fluid (Motul 600) never boiled so that was good. The good news is that with just a few street miles this week, the pads and rotors are back to feeling and looking about like they did when I bought the carâŠ.rotors are still grooved a bit, but smeared pad material is gone and brakes pedal feel is normal. Doesnât seem to have suffered any massive pad taper like some of my previous cars.
I was kicking myself all weekend for not buying the only track ready brake pads I could find for this platform and installing them before the event https://www.counterspacegarage.com/blog/brakes/brake-pads-for-2020-toyota-supra-gr/, as I am sure that would have gone a long way to allowing me to do some full laps with ânormalâ breaking.
-I did the first session with the traction control and active handling in reduced intervention (one quick push of VSC button) and found this mode to be pretty unobtrusive if I was smooth. I was somewhat worried this might contribute to rear brake temps once I started getting faster, so ran the rest of the weekend with all nannies off. No issues there, and no strange intervention. You can really feel the M differential working coming out of turn 2 however, which feels a little like TC kicking in while the car struggle for grip accelerating in 3rd and 4th while simultaneously turning right.
-overall I am very pleased with the car, and plan to get back on track with just upgraded brake pads here soon. The Michelin PSS did pretty well for a street tire, and Iâll just wear those out before going with something stickier. The stock suspension felt on the street like it was going to be a letdown on the track (felt like it might be too soft on the track, especially in the rear, and felt like the car would be loose in the high speed stuff) but I was surprised to find the stock suspension quite fun and really flawless on the track with street tires. Need brakes first, then tires, then maybe mild suspension.
BTW, Tundra tows the Supra like a champ, and U-haul trailer works decently well with a few 2x4's to allow splitter to clear the front.
What I wish the aftermarket would do at this point is:
1. Make a caliper bracket that allows bolting up a popular 4-6 piston caliper to the stock front rotor that already has tons of pad options to choose from. Stock caliper has weird pad design, and pretty small pads for the size of the caliper, and only seems to share design with M550i which will make it slow for pad companies to offer pads just for this application.
2. Design some sort of anti wind buffeting kit like they make for PorschesâŠ.damn it is brutal. https://soulpp.com/product/blackmill-performance-anti-wind-buffeting-aero-kit/
3. Get some decent wheel and track tire fitments available. I think you could go 275/295 on 18â wheels with proper track tires easyâŠ.maybe bigger with proper offset? Maybe square setup with suspension tuned to matchâŠ.295 or 305âs all around would be sweet!
4. Figure out what causes such a mushy brake pedal and fix it. Not sure if it is lines, caliper flex, or something built into the system, but the brakes really feel mushy even on the street. Doesnât help that my last two cars in just the last year were a 911.1 GT3 and a 18â NSX, but on the track the brake performance and feel are the only let down at all. Even with the brake âissueâ the rest of the car did so well, I am overall very excited to see what this platform has to bring in the future. Luckily brakes are easy to fix/upgrade.
I have done many track days over the years, but not so much recently with only 1 or 2 track days per year for a while now. This car just really begs to be driven on the track, so I decided to sign up for a âHooked on Drivingâ event at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) last weekend running in group C (solo advanced).
I struggled to find much info about the car (thanks Jackie Ding for the single most comprehensive place for Supra track info!) so just decided to try the car nearly dead stock and see what works and what doesnât.
First off, the car is an absolute joy to drive on the trackâŠvery well balanced and just fun to drive. Short gearing and great torque makes it easy to find a gear (or two) that suits every turn, and the car is easy to rotate in the slow turns, but surprisingly stable in the higher speed stuff.
In no particular order here are a few observations
-tires wear surprisingly even at VIR, and not the immediate outer tread block destruction I used to get on M3âs without camber plates. Probably mostly due to VIR being easy on tires, but nice for the first track outing nonetheless
-engine oil and coolant stay very close to street levels on the track using the secret menu. Iâd see low 100âs C coolant and just a little higher on oil (115-118 C ) on 90 F day. https://www.supramkv.com/threads/unlocking-secret-menu.2025/ This car has some massive coolant radiators (2 big ones and 2 smaller ones) and I love they was the cooling system on this car works to heat up the oil quickly on the street (hot coolant warms up the oil through water to oil heat exchanger) but still keeps temps in check on the track.
- canât hear the engine at speed, mostly due to wind buffeting with both windows down, so you really have to be aware of what gear you are inâŠ.found myself counting gears in my head like I do in a motorcycle without gear display.
-car pull pretty strong dead stock up to 110 mph or so, then starts to struggle a little once you get into 5th and 6th. Its not bad, but definitely feels properly quick coming out of the slower corners with short gearing and good torque, but doesnât pull down the long straights with the big dogs. I was seeing high 130's indicated on the back straight and low 130's mph on the front straight but was letting out early to keep brake temps in check.
-car seemed to get about 9-10 mpg on the track, and I didnât get any fuel starve but never started a session with less than 2/3 tank or so. I tried to keep the tank 2/3 full or more not knowing if these cars will fuel starve, and just watching Jackie Dingâs last video from Road America shows the car *might* have an issue with fuel starve at lower fuel levels.
-brakesâŠ.this is the only part of the car that wasnât spectacular all weekend. For dead stock and street pads I really canât complain, but the pedal is immediately long and mushy even before brakes are hot. They would stay pretty consistent with concerted efforts to baby them (letting off 2/3 way down each straight and floating speed into NASCAR (turn 3), South bend (turn 10) and use the hill as much as possible in turn 11 coming into Oak tree. Doing all of this I could run a whole 20-25 min session without overheating the brakes, but the pedal just felt really mushy all weekend. Doing a full lap on Jackie Ding kill mode would immediately put the pads to a temp they started smearing pad material on the rotor, and the pedal would drop to what felt like the floor in the hard braking zones. Not confidence inspiring. Fluid (Motul 600) never boiled so that was good. The good news is that with just a few street miles this week, the pads and rotors are back to feeling and looking about like they did when I bought the carâŠ.rotors are still grooved a bit, but smeared pad material is gone and brakes pedal feel is normal. Doesnât seem to have suffered any massive pad taper like some of my previous cars.
I was kicking myself all weekend for not buying the only track ready brake pads I could find for this platform and installing them before the event https://www.counterspacegarage.com/blog/brakes/brake-pads-for-2020-toyota-supra-gr/, as I am sure that would have gone a long way to allowing me to do some full laps with ânormalâ breaking.
-I did the first session with the traction control and active handling in reduced intervention (one quick push of VSC button) and found this mode to be pretty unobtrusive if I was smooth. I was somewhat worried this might contribute to rear brake temps once I started getting faster, so ran the rest of the weekend with all nannies off. No issues there, and no strange intervention. You can really feel the M differential working coming out of turn 2 however, which feels a little like TC kicking in while the car struggle for grip accelerating in 3rd and 4th while simultaneously turning right.
-overall I am very pleased with the car, and plan to get back on track with just upgraded brake pads here soon. The Michelin PSS did pretty well for a street tire, and Iâll just wear those out before going with something stickier. The stock suspension felt on the street like it was going to be a letdown on the track (felt like it might be too soft on the track, especially in the rear, and felt like the car would be loose in the high speed stuff) but I was surprised to find the stock suspension quite fun and really flawless on the track with street tires. Need brakes first, then tires, then maybe mild suspension.
BTW, Tundra tows the Supra like a champ, and U-haul trailer works decently well with a few 2x4's to allow splitter to clear the front.
What I wish the aftermarket would do at this point is:
1. Make a caliper bracket that allows bolting up a popular 4-6 piston caliper to the stock front rotor that already has tons of pad options to choose from. Stock caliper has weird pad design, and pretty small pads for the size of the caliper, and only seems to share design with M550i which will make it slow for pad companies to offer pads just for this application.
2. Design some sort of anti wind buffeting kit like they make for PorschesâŠ.damn it is brutal. https://soulpp.com/product/blackmill-performance-anti-wind-buffeting-aero-kit/
3. Get some decent wheel and track tire fitments available. I think you could go 275/295 on 18â wheels with proper track tires easyâŠ.maybe bigger with proper offset? Maybe square setup with suspension tuned to matchâŠ.295 or 305âs all around would be sweet!
4. Figure out what causes such a mushy brake pedal and fix it. Not sure if it is lines, caliper flex, or something built into the system, but the brakes really feel mushy even on the street. Doesnât help that my last two cars in just the last year were a 911.1 GT3 and a 18â NSX, but on the track the brake performance and feel are the only let down at all. Even with the brake âissueâ the rest of the car did so well, I am overall very excited to see what this platform has to bring in the future. Luckily brakes are easy to fix/upgrade.
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