The irony of turning up to see a Toyota with BMW mechanicals (and more) in a Lotus with Toyota mechanicals wasn’t lost on me. I find the styling quite funky, although it’s not pretty. Weirdly I find that kind of appealing. 19”s looked a smidge small on it though. @Marv would be happy. Interior is BMW and I liked it. No space behind the rear seats, but you do have direct access to the boot area, which is a decent size. Not sure I’d be able to squeeze a German Shepherd in for an emergency vet run like I can in the Evora, but that’s a pretty niche “need”.
Test drive was solo, but only around 25mins and in addition to being very wet, it was pretty urban. Driving position felt a bit weird stepping out of the Lotus – which has heavily left-offset pedals due to the intrusion from the front wheel/double wishbone suspension. Supra has pedals heavily offset to the right due to the wide transmission tunnel. Felt a bit uncomfortable, but I am sure I would adapt. Shift action was nice, but I was unexpectedly annoyed at the height of the central console/arm-rest section which forced an unnatural “elbow high” movement, with my elbow tending to drop into the cup-holder. Raising the seat alleviated this a little, but not completely, and then I was sat too high. Bonnet was loooong, and fully in-view, and the windscreen felt fairly shallow, giving a bit of a "letterbox" sensation..
Unfortunately the weather was v wet, and the OEM tyre is the Michelin Pilot Supersport. Which is OK in the wet, but not awesome. Engine sounded pretty good– bassy. Auto throttle blip on downchanges worked well, but… I want to do that myself. Fat mid-range shove with almost no lag was pretty impressive, but I didn’t get a chance to fully extend it to the redline even once. See below.
I know I am spoilt a little by the Evora’s rear weight bias – v similar to a 911. Traction is therefore excellent. I didn’t expect the Supra to match it, but I was surprised at the size of the gap in capability. I had it in “Sport “which allows some slip, but it spun the 275 rears very easily. I went back to the same bit of road in the Evora before I headed home, and the contrast was significant.
So I left expressing a desire to try it for a bit longer in the dry – will see if they offer me an extended test drive. I didn’t get a sense of the power available, or the steering feel, but whilst I’d be happy to give it another try, I suspect the awkward gearshift arm position (no point having a manuel if it isn’t a tactile pleasure), and the relative lack of traction are likely to be deal breakers.
Library interior image which shows what I mean wrt shift.
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