2021 Toyota GR Supra 2.0 vs. 2020 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Premium: Boosted Little Brothers

supraboi

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https://www.motortrend.com/cars/for...a-gr-supra-2-0-vs-2020-ford-mustang-ecoboost/

What’s the better choice, the sporty pony car or the sports car with fewer ponies?

A recent voicemail I received from a neighbor: "Hi, it's Jason, and I noticed that you have a Supra. Miller would love a ride in it if possible. Thanks, bye." Jason has a company that builds off-road vehicles, and Miller is his teenage son.

But this wasn't going to be a "give a kid a ride in a sports car" nice guy thing. Uh uh. It would be a transaction. Kid gets ride, I get kid's thoughts. Despite orbiting the planet a measly 14 times, Miller is one of those automotive "how does he know that?" teens. Maybe he'll temper the skepticism my 49 additional orbits have got me carrying into comparing the 2021 Toyota GR Supra 2.0 to a 2020 Ford Mustang EcoBoost.

Me? Names like Mustang and Supra subconsciously sort themselves into the same cultural silos as Budweiser and Sapporo or Levi's and Uniqlo—rival products that give one another wary side glances and would, if they could, drive to opposite ends of this sentence to be as far apart as possible. Parked next to each other, they'd lean in opposite directions on their tires.

Sure, there are YouTube videos of Supras drag racing and fuzzy old 8mm films of Parnelli Jones' Boss 302 Mustang romping around corners in Trans Am road-racing, but both are scenes of the actors playing against their type. In my opinion, there are two kinds of driving enthusiasts. First are the ones whose happy place is when they're pinned to their seat back by straight-line g's, and second are those whose endorphins are uncorked during cornering g's. It's one or the other. The Mustang pressed button A, the Supra presses button B.

This Mustang And Supra Are Both Little Brothers
Admittedly, the Venn diagrams of this particular Mustang and Supra—an EcoBoost and a 2.0—bump into each other a little. As Miller walked up to the Supra, he knew it wasn't the 3.0-liter turbo with 335 hp. "That's the new one with the 2.0-liter turbo-four from the BMW sDrive30." He's right. The 2021 GR Supra 2.0's engine outputs 255 hp at 5,000 rpm and 295 lb-ft at 1,550, all twisted through an eight-speed automatic. Unlike the 3.0-liter car, its suspension is simpler and non-adjustable, and it doesn't come with the limited-slip diff, either. Although both Supra variants share the same tire widths—255 front, 275 rears—the 2.0's are mounted on 18- rather than 19-inch wheels. Of course, the point of all this lesser and smaller stuff is a shrunken price, down to $44,000 to start ($47,500 as tested), a stout $7,000 less than the base 3.0-liter car. Toyota's supercomputers have definitely identified a marketable slot between this and the Supra's little brother, the 86.

Likewise, this Mustang isn't the galloping, burbling eight-pot horse we reflexively picture, either. The EcoBoost is more of a cantering animal, with a 2.3-liter turbocharged four and six-speed manual transmission. It starts at a bargain $32,900, but by the time that nearly $11K in options are tacked on, our test car crests at a $43,665 endpoint. The bulk of it, nearly $5,000, is a 2.3 High Performance package and the EcoBoost Handling Package. It's still a deal, though.

Size Doesn't Matter
But despite it being cheaper, if you were to overlay each car's 3-D CAD files, the Mustang's would be big enough to hide the Supra completely inside it, being 16.0 inches longer, 2.4 inches wider, and 3.2 inches taller. The Mustang is also 450 pounds heavier, plus it has rear seats, though only kidnappers would ever be willing sit back there. Were Amazon to deliver a Mustang to your door, the box would be 74 cubic feet bigger than the Supra's box, and your uncle the accountant would calculate that it coincidentally costs $74 per cubic foot, or 62 percent cheaper than the Supra's $118. Nevertheless, the Ford is more power-dense, with one hp per every 1.35 cubic feet compared to the Toyota's 1.46. And despite the EcoBoost's similar power-to-weight ratio, our road test editor and denizen of the dragstrip, Chris Walton, deems the Supra to be the quicker car, owing, I figure, to its wider rear tires and the greater percentage of weight on said rear tires.

Taken out of their boxes, their shapes are even more dissimilar. The Supra (which was actually designed at Toyota's CALTY studio in California) is like an expensive running shoe, form-fitting and complex-looking. Its nose has a Formula 1-inspired snout, and from there back its form undulates in a series of muscular folds that remind me of those artsy, zoomed-close black-and-white photos of nude, fit models you see in museums where you can't quite tell what you're looking at, but whatever it is, it's interesting.

If the Toyota tips its hat (or caplike roof) to its iconic, long-nose, short-stern 1994 fourth-gen predecessor, the EcoBoost Mustang is as locked within its cage of expectations as Julian Assange is in his London prison. This isn't really "design," is it? It's pleasant parody, like the ninth Fast and Furious movie where the slow-motion airborne cars were already checkboxes by version 3. As if the designers in the Mustang studio are issued connect-the-dots sketchpads before for every new generation—angry headlights, dot, rear wheel power bulges, dot, triple-hashmark taillights, dot—and then allowed to slightly play around with the lines between them. That said, it's a better remake than most of them, particularly given ever-mounting safety obstacles, like tall, pedestrian-absorbing hoods for instance. Just don't google any images of the sublime original, and you'll be happy.

The Mustang Has A Slower Sweet Spot
After a few miles lurching along through L.A. 's local mountains at eight-tenths, I decided the Mustang's sweet spot is a couple clicks lower. Say, around six-tenths. Set it to its street-sane Sport+ mode, and the lighter-nosed EcoBoost Mustang is a nimbler dance partner than the V-8 'Stangs (certainly pleasuring my B-Type driving preference). But the steering ratio is slow enough and its yaw response languid enough that it's easy to get out of phase with corrections and lose track of where the car is going. Even with that, the bow hunts around as the whole car bounds on bumpier surfaces even though you're holding a constant steering angle. And although its default effort setting seemed unnecessarily high, I quickly reverted to it from Comfort, as unintentional steering motions become too easy to make as the car gyrates. Between the corners, the shifter never misses, but its clunk-ca-clunk linkage takes time.

Randy Pobst's Pony Car Cameo
Serendipitously, a week earlier, Randy Pobst happened to be lapping the same Mustang around Willow Springs for a different project.

"On the first lap, I immediately had a sideways moment in Turn 9, but I think the tires just weren't up to operating temperature," he said. "I haven't known the Pirelli Corsas to be very sensitive to that. Before the car got hot and cut power [it was blistering that day], I was liking the four-cylinder engine's low-end torque—it runs 22 pounds of boost, which is a lot—and though it's still a midrange and bottom-end engine, it pulls better at high revs than the regular engine. [Credit the High Performance package.] You go through those lower gears in a hurry with the short, 3:55:1 final drive ratio, and the engine's happy being shifted low in the revs, too—about 5,000-5,500 rpm. [In fact, the tach turns red at 5,000.] Both upgrade packages increase the size of the rear anti-roll bar, which reduces understeer, and I really liked the brakes. It's a really firm brake pedal."

The crack racing driver and the car journalist who track-tests cars (for almost 40 years, really?) aren't completely agreeing here. And remember this: A bumpy, narrow public road at moderate speeds can tell you a whole different story than a smooth, wide, high-speed racetrack.

The Supra Takes The Road Less Taken
Instead of retracing the Mustang's mountain route, I headed the Supra south to Ortega Highway, a wiggly link between San Juan Capistrano and inland Lake Elsinore.

A mistake. On the way up past Santiago Peak, I cleared the garbage trucks and construction equipment long enough to sample how alien this car's handling is from that of the Mustang. With far less body roll, lighter weight, better-balanced weight distribution, and staggered tire sizes, it's a slot car versus the Ford's log-ride vagueness. Shifts are finger taps. The car's BMW power is bright instead of fast, and the brakes surgically snub the speed when the apexes approach. Still, I was also wary of my corner entry speed, as I'd already felt the tail grossly oversteer during an impromptu figure-eight lap where my hands weren't smooth. And the whole time, the car's rear is bucking over bumps, sometimes violently. Then, just tootling along behind a guy in an old Civic, I got pulled over.

"Do you know why you've been pulled over?" I literally shrugged my shoulders. I think the officer was expecting a canyon racer kid and thumping rap instead of a Mr. Rogers-type looking startled, listening to jazz. "Why, how are you today, officer?" No criminal here, he waved me on my way. With an eye on the speedometer on the way down the mountain, I passed a young guy revving a bright red Alfa Romeo 4C on a pull-out waiting for a long gap in traffic. Have a nice day, pal.

Miller Time
With Miller belted into the Supra 2.0, I slowed to a stop, held the brake, stepped the throttle into the carpet, checked that the coast was clear, and popped my left foot off the brake pedal. The Supra made a tiny chirp and accelerated, but no more so than guys around here inadvertently do in Teslas. I looked at Miller and gestured, "That's it." He slowly rocked his head side to side, underwhelmed.

"So how do you picture the Mustang and Supra?" I asked him, expecting a new-era perspective. "The Mustang is a pony car" he replied. "When I think of the Supra, I think of those cool JDM cars. I wouldn't compare them, but, yeah, I might consider both." I'm actually surprised. Our half-century age gap doesn't leave much common ground when it comes to culture and taste. Music, movies, certainly language—I have to resist saying "bitchin'" or "boss" when he and my son exchange "that's sick." But here we are seeing the Mustang and Supra exactly the same way. And then the car's rear discovers a bump and jolts us again.

Both of these are cars make a tempting play for your affection. I relish the Supra's steering sharpness. The Mustang's happy charm gets you grinning by the end of the street. But unless you live on a giant billiard ball, the Toyota's rear suspension is a flaw, too uncomfortable to live with, while the Mustang EcoBoost is the rare pony car that manages to wear its tweed sports car cap comfortably enough to get the nod.
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supraboi

supraboi

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https://www.caranddriver.com/review...020-ford-mustang-23l-vs-2021-toyota-supra-20/

2020-ford-mustang-vs-2021-toyota-supra-1602523696.jpg


Think of an affordable rear-drive performance car. Got it? Okay. If the Mazda Miata didn't at least flash in your mind, you probably haven't spent enough time with us here. Feel free to go ahead and dial up some back issues if you'd like. Or we can catch you up real fast.

Cheap rear-drivers are what get us out of bed in the morning. They pack all the fun of pricier, more powerful cars because they are cut from the same cloth that emphasizes crisp handling and a great driving experience. The reward for taking the rear-drive road is (usually) less filtered steering feel and improved cornering balance.

Unfortunately, rear-drive as the status quo gave way to front-wheel drive decades ago, and all-wheel drive has been steadily chipping away at the holdouts. There just aren't many cheap rear-drive performance cars left. There's the aforementioned king from Hiroshima; there are the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 twins; and, well, that's about it. For some time now, automakers have left a yawning gap between those mid-to-high-14-second quarter-mile cars and vehicles like the pony-car-turned-sports-car Chevrolet Camaro SS. But Ford and Toyota are out to change that. The newest variants of the Ford Mustang and Toyota Supra aim to fill that space with boosted four-bangers and handling hand-me-downs from their more powerful siblings.

These middle-ground performance cars aren't that cheap, though. A Mustang with the 2.3L High Performance package, like the Race Red one seen here, starts at $32,860. The hi-po pack inflates the output of the base Stang's turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four by 20 horses, to 330, and adds $4995 to the price. Once you spec the $1995 EcoBoost Handling package (19-inch Pirelli P Zero Corsa PZC4 tires, magnetorheological dampers, and a shorter 3.55:1 limited-slip diff), the four-cylinder Mustang graduates from muscle-car wannabe to legitimate performer. Spec yours like our test car—with the Premium package, navigation system, and blind-spot monitoring—and you're looking at a car with a $42,070 price tag.


Powered by a 255-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, Toyota's new entry-level Supra starts about 11 grand higher than the Mustang, but you need no options to make this a back-roads star. Equipped with navigation, an upgraded stereo, special yellow paint, and a cargo mat, the Supra 2.0 tested here flirts with $48,000.

There is another difference between these two cars, one that's even more notable than their almost $6000 spread. Like the six-cylinder version, this Supra is available only with an eight-speed automatic. Ford offers buyers a choice of a six-speed manual or a 10-speed auto. We tested the manual Mustang because that's the one we'd buy.

Before the bow-tie-tattoo community moans over the lack of a Camaro 1LE in this test, know that we asked for one—initially for the turbo four-banger and then, after realizing the naturally aspirated V-6 would be a better fit, for one of those. The answer was a polite "no" both times. Maybe Chevy thinks its Camaro SS 1LE is the best fit.

Though cheap performance may no longer be so cheap, it is still fun. But if you're going to spend this much on a four-cylinder sports car, you'd better know which is best.

2nd Place:
Ford Mustang 2.3L High Performance



Highs: Manual trans, useful chassis upgrades, timeless look.
Lows: Creaky interior, engine lacks character, it costs how much?
Verdict: Ford's hi-po version of its entry-level pony is missing a few years of development.

Ford bet big on turbocharged engines back in 2009. Its line of EcoBoost engines is marketed with the promise of power when you need it and frugality when you want it. But a performance Mustang with a boosted four isn't a new idea. The Mustang SVO launched in 1983 to mostly positive words from this magazine, but the turbo four Stang was mothballed after '86 for more than two decades. When the 2.3-liter launched for 2015, we were far less into the idea of a Mustang with fewer than eight cylinders.

The EcoBoost Handling pack goes a long way in changing our minds. Think of this car as the EcoBoost version of the Mustang GT Performance Package Level 2 [see "Stretch Goals"]. The Pirellis deliver 1.02 g's of stick in corners and help this car change direction like a rabbit escaping a hound. But even running the same size 265/40ZR-19 tires front and rear doesn't abate the front-end push. We prefer the Supra's neutral handling, which borders on oversteer, to the Stang's safe understeer setup. Plus, the Ford's steering transmits continuous vibratory static to the driver.


The Mustang can't hang with the Supra in straight-line drags, either. The Ford packs 75 more horses than the Toyota yet requires half a second more to cover a quarter-mile. By 130 mph, the Stang is 1.7 seconds behind the Supra. And before you go blaming the Mustang's extra 460 pounds of, um, curb appeal, check out the pounds-per-horsepower ratio. It falls in the Mustang's favor by a wide margin. But BMW, which supplies the Supra's engine, is known for conservative engine ratings, and the Mustang suffers a small time penalty for manual shifting. That's a penalty we're willing to take, though, for the ability to row our own gears.

The 2.3-liter just never feels very lively in Mustangs. It runs out of steam well before its 6500-rpm redline, and while you can overrun it to 6800 for brief periods, doing so is neither satisfying nor smart. It's quicker to short-shift around 6000 rpm.

But the Mustang is still a Mustang. It's an iconic design that gets people excited. Driver comfort and interior space are also excellent. A creaky dash leads us to think there is some chassis flex, but the car otherwise feels solidly screwed together. Plus, a back seat of any size is a nice thing to have. You can make a Mustang work as your only car; that's harder to do with the two-seat Supra. We just can't help but wonder how good the four-cylinder Mustang would be if Ford had kept the SVO idea alive for all these years.

1st Place:
Toyota Supra 2.0



Highs: Lovely engine, eager chassis, youthful looks.
Lows: Trans tuning could use a hackathon, only two seats, even more expensive than the Ford.
Verdict: The four-cylinder BMW coupe we've dreamed of since the '90s.

Say what you will about the Toyota's styling, but people—especially young ones—notice the Supra. As one 21-year-old nanny to a perfect 17-month-old baby girl put it: "That car is badass!" She had no clue that this four-cylinder car is the baby of the Supra family. The best way for you to distinguish between the two is to look at the wheels: The 2.0 gets 18-inchers; the 3.0 rides on 19s.

As soon as you toe the Supra's throttle, you realize what that extra $6K gets you. Where the Mustang's 2.3 falls flat, the BMW-sourced inline-four keeps pulling to redline. It has the sounds of a race-bred Cosworth but not the thirst. And at the last fill-up, we marveled at how many fewer gallons—whole gallons!—the Supra sipped. Sure, the Ford mill is 13 percent larger and 75 horses stronger, but an observed-fuel-economy delta of 8 mpg is practically unheard of in C/D comparo testing. It's tough to call Ford's engine "eco" anything when the Supra averages 27 mpg to its 19.


The only problem in the Supra's powertrain is its transmission logic. It's rare that we sample a ZF eight-speed automatic that isn't intuitive. Normally, in Sport mode, a car will automatically downshift to a lower gear under braking. The assumption is that you're going to get back on the gas because, you know, that's what you do when you're driving briskly. But that doesn't happen here. We resorted to pulling the paddles, which works fine, but if we're stuck with an automatic, we want the shifting to be automatic. All the Supra's noncosmetic faults could be solved with an optional manual, which, if rumors are true, Toyota is seriously considering. How can we get K-pop fanatics to flood Toyota with that message?

The Supra's breezy 3181-pound curb weight helps give it a decided handling advantage. The BMW-spec Michelins don't have to work as hard as the Ford's Pirellis, and they put up better numbers because of that. The Supra made a clean sweep of the chassis tests. Credit goes to the chassis tuners. Sure, they may have been working with a 9.9-inch-shorter wheelbase than Ford's team was, but the Toyota's passive dampers remind us that it is possible to dial in a good ride-handling balance without resorting to electronic crutches. Best of all, this Supra drives small. The cabin feels tailored, not off the rack, and it communicates to the driver like a polished orator, making it worth its premium. Which is exactly why it's the best car at filling in the mid-price sports-car gap.

Stretch Goals
Ford Mustang GT PPL2: $45,575
Toyota Supra 3.0: $51,985

The four-cylinder Mustang and Supra we tested come very close to the cost of much more capable models wearing the same nameplates. The Ford Mustang GT Performance Package Level 2 packs a 460-hp V-8 and enough Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber to upset even the most grounded equilibrium—1.13 g's on the skidpad—all for just $3505 more than our 2.3-liter hi-po test car. The Supra 3.0, with a 382-hp turbo inline-six and adaptive dampers, hits 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and passes a quarter-mile in 12.1 seconds for $4010 more than the yellow 2.0 we had for this comparison. Serious performance buyers will clip coupons and pinch pennies to make the engine upgrade happen. —KC
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puzzled

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10 out of 10 for fit and finish on the Supra? Really? Did BMW revise their dies for stamping body panels?

8 for the Ford? Really?!

This guy needs new glasses or I should throw away mine to celebrate.
 

Ultimateone

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10 out of 10 for fit and finish on the Supra? Really? Did BMW revise their dies for stamping body panels?

8 for the Ford? Really?!

This guy needs new glasses or I should throw away mine to celebrate.
Ive had a 2015 Ecoboost and GT, they are a POS with fun motors.
 

MCSeverino

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I had a 2015 GT with the performance pack. It was fun and looked great, but a maintenance nightmare. I had numerous engine issues and the a/c went out completely twice - both times in middle of the hottest months in Las Vegas. But for the warranty, and a little of the extended warranty, I would have been out tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. It also rattled and creaked like crazy.
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