Toyota confirms Supra revival concept for 2016 reveal

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Sun Devil

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Going to be interesting when we can see the final production car.
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Villa Jonny

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I'm a bit surprised by how quickly the news on the "new supra brochure" went viral.. Hell, I asked it as a question. Lol
 
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Supra93

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I don't think 2,976 - 3,152 pounds is to far fetched. The current base Z4 comes in at 3,263 lbs.
 

910ps

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The fake image looks real enough but they trusted a random site in Russia? Smh.

The specs are too optimistic imo but I won't complain if it comes close.
 

FRS-Man

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It shouldn't be another Supra concept at Tokya, it should be the real-deal production car. If they continue to stretch this with another concept then the relevance of the car will diminish even more than it already has.
Even though it'll be a 'concept' it could still be a quick turnaround to the production car. Now that we've been seeing the prototype testing often, it doesn't seem like the production car is far off. Once Spring hits I'm sure we'll see it even more, especially testing at the Nurburgring. My hope is we see the concept at Tokyo and then a world debut for the production car at Detroit in Jan 2018 or NY in April 2018.
 

Supraman

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I'm really hoping all thats leaked out of Toyota is 'hey let's say we're showing a Supra concept at Tokyo this year' to get everyone excited to only shock us with the production version. The LC500 was revealed 15 months before it's at the dealerships in April this year. If this car is suppose to be a 2019 model, we'll see it Oct/Nov of next year in dealerships. So why not just reveal it 12 months prior. Instead of spending money on another concept when the FT-1 can be viewed as the actual concept.
 

gymratter

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^I'm sure you're right. The main question here is how long is this 2nd concept suppose to be relevant for before the production version is shown and the actual car available for sale. 6 months? Another year or 2?

Production cars are usually displayed 8months+ before the car is sitting on lots. I just find it hard that they will show a production model at Detroit in Jan 2018 to have the car selling late 2018 when a concept was revealed 2months prior (tokyo this year). That's why I think early/late 2019 is when maybe we'll see one for sale...maybe. But I could be completely wrong as well.

And keep in mind all mark ups dealerships will be asking for the first few months maybe year. Unless you're willing to pay that, it means you're waiting even longer possibly 2020.
it does seem a little odd to than show off the production car 2-3 months later at Detroit. i think this new concept has been finished for quite some time now. why wait so long to unveil it? my guess would be to bring some shine back to the Tokyo motor show?

http://www.supramkv.com/threads/pro...-supra-teased-in-behind-the-scenes-video.393/
 

Nadeshot!

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Looks like a very conceptual design. Huge wheels, slammed, comic like proportions.

Good work tho!

giphy.gif
 

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:)

The in-your-face face of Toyota design

TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Notice anything different about the look of Toyotas these days?

Toyota sure hopes so.

From the drool-worthy FT-1 Concept to the funky C-HR compact crossover, and even the new "sexy" Camry sedan, the brand is looking much less ho-hum and way more oh-yum.

Part of that new vibe is coming from a star American designer who is pushing the brand's styling to new limits under Akio Toyoda's decree for "no more boring cars."

Ian Cartabiano enjoys a good bowl of ramen and cruising backstreet boutiques in Tokyo. But it's clearly his California flair that's giving his U.S. studio outsized influence at Japan's No. 1 carmaker at the moment.

He and his colleagues at the Calty design center in Newport Beach, Calif., are shaking things up.

The in-your-face C-HR and the curvaceous new Camry are two recent hits. So is the FT-4X Concept, a Tonka-truck trail hawk shown in New York last April. Watch for more handiwork soon when Toyota unveils, as early as this fall, an all-new Supra sports car as previewed by the sublime FT-1.

Cartabiano, 43, a laid-back, blue-eyed, bearded stylist who joined Toyota in 1997, had a hefty hand in all of them — as well as in the super svelte Lexus LC sports coupe. But the veteran designer credits the surge in emotional design to two factors: CEO Toyoda and new modularized platforms.

Car-crazy Toyoda unchained designers to break boundaries by demanding hotter-looking rides. And thanks to the Toyota New Global Architecture, a series of revamped vehicle underpinnings that allows Toyota's cars to be lower, wider, leaner and meaner, designers are free to deliver.

"The era of boring cars, of bland cars and anonymous design is over," Cartabiano said at the Japanese carmaker's global headquarters here. "It's what Akio expects. When the president says something like that, it really allows designers to feel creative freedom."

Impossible to miss

The clearest sign of changing times: Toyota's sizzling show cars aren't getting watered down. The production versions of the Toyota C-HR and Lexus LC are spitting images of their edgy concept cars.

The metamorphosis is getting noticed.

"It's almost impossible to miss or ignore Toyota's products anymore," said John Manoogian, a professor of transportation design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and a former General Motors designer. "It's so difficult to get a large corporation to understand the importance of design as a strategic tool and a product differentiator. Apple understands this. Mr. Toyoda understands it as well and has unleashed Toyota's designers to be as creative as possible."

Toyota is also spending more time and money to make it happen.

Switching to the modularized architecture allows engineers to drive down costs by using a common parts bin for a wider array of nameplates. Executives had promised the savings would be channeled back into better vehicles with sexier designs and more cutting-edge technology. And corporate cost-control managers are making good on that pledge.

For the C-HR alone, the design budget was increased 25 percent, Cartabiano said.

"It's brought down cost in some areas, which allows more cost to be spent on more expressive design," he said of the modular architecture. "It's something that wouldn't happen in the old way of doing things."

'Crazy-ass shape'

Cartabiano glides his hand along the undulating curves of the C-HR's rear quarter-panel, which boasts some of the deepest, most intricate stamping in the Toyota lineup. The wild fender flares slither from around the tailgate and under the taillamp before blending into a heavy door crease.

The deep draw of the stamping required delicate tooling and flawless production processes to make sure the sheen of reflected light seamlessly follows the creases from one panel to the next.

"That's a crazy-ass shape," Cartabiano said. "I think the side panel of the C-HR would look really cool hung on the wall as a piece of art.

"In the old days, people would have said, 'That's a lot of extra cost or that's a lot of extra time. Let's take the easy way out.' "

But the C-HR gambit paved the way for more risks on the 2018 Camry.

On the Camry, a key sticking point was the aerodynamics of the C-pillar. The pillar gets a twist in the middle to allow the rear window to curl around the sides of the car. That kink also is a demarcation for a color option with a blacked-out roof that gives the Camry sportier proportions akin to a rear-wheel-drive sedan. Designers at first assumed the flourish was a pipe dream.

"In the beginning, it was like, 'Oh that would be cool, but they'll never make anything like this,' " Cartabiano recalls. "But then, engineering's getting excited and we're figuring out ways to do it."

Toyota splurged on design extras for the Camry. Aside from the blacked-out roof option, the XLE and XSE grades get different front bumpers, rear bumpers and rocker panels, as well as four wheel choices.

"We can make this kind of sculpture, but still make lots of product and keep our costs down," Cartabiano said.

"The design budget was increased, and a lot of that was because of TNGA."

Toyota boosted design spending on everything from the Camry's boomerang taillamps to the door handles. The door handle took four months to design, said Cartabiano, who penned the initial 2-inch sketch of the new Camry in the margins of his calendar journal.

Polarizing is OK

Cartabiano comes from a long line of artsy DNA. His mother is a painter, his father an accomplished toy designer whose claim to fame is devising My Little Pony figurines for Hasbro.

But Cartabiano's childhood was preoccupied with cars, not pink plastic horses.

While other kids collected baseball cards, Cartabiano made his own collectors' cards — with hand-drawn pictures of his favorite automobiles on one side and their key specs on the other.

"My earliest memory is losing my prized Hot Wheels model," he said. "It was a European police car."

Now in his 21st year at Toyota, Cartabiano says this is the best time to be a designer at the company.

His personal philosophy exemplifies the new love-it-or-leave mantra of CEO Toyoda and his global design guru and chief branding officer, Tokuo Fukuichi.

"I respect something that's new but not perfect, rather than something that's beautiful but nondescript," Cartabiano says. "I'd rather be challenged than made comfortable. Polarizing is OK."

But for a mass-market brand such as Toyota, being too avant-garde can alienate a core customer base looking for reliable transportation, experts warn. The futuristic look of the latest generation Prius, with its angular front face, is sometimes cited as a reason for the hybrid's lackluster volume.

"Many viewers find the new visual identity bordering on 'too much, in your face,' " Manoogian said.

"While I believe in standing out and eschewing the bland and boring, they have to be careful in executing this new direction. The sales numbers will tell the true story."

Cartabiano counters that Toyota's design renaissance is starting to click with customers.

"In the olden days, when we had brand identity, we would just toss it with the next car. It frustrated a lot of us," he said. "Now we're not throwing out what's good. We're now evolving it."

That commitment shines through, he says, in the latest generation of creations.

"Often, when you design something, you can see the compromise when you see it on the road," he said. "But when I see these cars just driving around here, I don't see compromise. I see purity."
http://www.autonews.com/article/20170917/OEM03/170919747/ian-cartabiano-calty-toyota-design
 

2JZ-No-Sh*t

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Automotive News makes it sound like it will be a production car rather than another concept.
 

solidsamir

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Hopefully they will keep the Supra bare bones. Good chassis. Great seats (like the FR-S). Driver oriented dashboard (virtual cockpit would be okay). A manual would be amazing. I'm not a DCT fan. Geez .... it needs over 400 hp to be relevant. I view the corvette as the competition.

As for price. Keep it below the Lexus, butttttttttt ....... performance should be better with the Supra. The Lexus can be the heavy weight with all the luxury items, sound deadening, etc. etc.

For me .... I've always said. I just want an 86 on steroids. No fluff. Just a great car.
I disagree, that would drive the price of the car astronomically. I don't see why Toyota would do that. In fact, I think that is the kind of stuff they should allow enthusiasts to obtain in the aftermarket.
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