A week with the GR Supra

We had the pleasure of living with a 2021 GR Supra for a week on our honeymoon. We drove Pacific coast highway from LA to Monterey and back, as well as Angeles Crest Highway. We also had the displeasure of driving in LA traffic, so this is a fairly well rounded test scenario of what it would be like to own a Supra.

To start I will be comparing this to my 2016 Golf R and my wife's 2016 Miata throughout. If anything this trip didn't make me want to buy a Supra but made me miss both of those vehicles since we have moved on from them.

Performance

Power

The power delivery was simply amazing. The car did struggle to put down the power at times in lower gears and was equipped with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. Traction control did a good job controlling it, but I have been driving all wheel drive cars now for 6 years, so wheel spin has generally been a thing of the past for me. The Miata was not so easy to spin the tires due to the much lower power level overall.

The Supra was completely stock, the turbo noise was great, the exhaust note was good as well. There really wasn't any lag at all, just put your foot down and the car pulled like a freight train. Contrary to my Golf R which had significant lag, but similar power numbers once tuned, the R would give up in the upper RPM ranges, where the Supra felt more like a big displacement car, still plenty of power at the top end.

Transmission

I had really high hopes for the ZF 8 speed. Auto journalists rave about this transmission. This was the biggest letdown of the car for me. After driving the Golf R for a few years with a tuned DSG transmission, the ZF 8 speed is not up to par. There was hesitation when downshifting, just a hair longer than it should have been, which made it very noticeable that it is a torque converter automatic transmission.

Auto mode has the same problem as the DSG in that it is constantly searching for the highest gear possible to achieve better fuel economy. This is ok for highway driving, but also annoying in everyday situations. After having migrated back to a manual transmission for my daily driver, I found that the ZF was always a gear, sometimes two or three gears, higher than I would have been in a manual car.

Handling/Comfort

The handling was well balanced. That is probably the best way to describe it. I never felt a lack of confidence and the rotation was superb. When I got home to my Alltrack it felt like a monster truck compared to the Supra. The Supra pulled canyon duty and GT car duty equally well, with long stretches totally manageable and not too hard on the back.

Overall not too bad for a very sporty car, the adaptive dampers help a lot here. I would have loved to see a comfort mode though, I only saw sport and normal, though I didn't play around with it too much. It was stiffer than a stock Golf R, but more compliant than a current gen Mini Cooper S. Not very comfortable if you are in dire need of a rest stop, but generally I had no complaints about the ride quality.

Braking

The brakes were simply amazing. The stopping power seemed perfectly tuned for the car, if not a bit difficult to actuate evenly. I probably only used 35% of the pedal travel to get the desired result. I would imagine 100% braking would probably rip your eyeballs out of their sockets. No overheating issues with the large ventilated front calipers in 90 degree plus weather driving curvy mountain roads. I wish my brakes felt like this.

Exterior

Overall looks

This is one sharp looking car. It turned heads nearly everywhere we went, had kids asking to rev it, and of course yelling "Is that a Supra?". We only saw one other Supra on the trip, among a wide variety of expensive vehicles around the LA area. This is probably second on the list of reasons to buy this car, first being the engine.

Interior

Infotainment

It was way too difficult to figure out how to setup Apple Car Play. It worked well once hooked up, but it was definitely not plug and play and took a few google searches to figure out how to do it properly.

Seats

The seats overall were fairly comfortable for the roughly 1,000 miles we put on the car. No legs falling asleep or back aches due to lack of positioning ability or lumbar support. Notable that both sides have power adjust settings for the bolsters, lumbar, position, etc. This can be seen as a cost cutting measure on plenty of other performance oriented cars that only give the driver the power controls.

Noise

The sound inside the cabin was much louder than I expected. Having lived with a Miata, I understand why it is noisy, being a convertible, but the Supra reminded me of that car. The road noise was higher than I expected from a car of this price, which made it feel slightly less luxurious than it actually is. Of course the engine note was good, though there was a slight hint of drone in both normal and sport mode at certain RPMs on the highway.

Lastly with about 24,000 miles on this example there were some interior rattles starting as well as a few suspension clunks. Again, I live with interior creaks and suspension clunks on my daily driver, which was at least 50% cheaper. I can attribute the suspension noises to my own modding choices as well.

Visibility

Poor. I am 6' tall, my wife is around 5'4", we both had blindspot issues with this car. She did not have problems in her Miata, though I did, which driving with the top down fixed. Unfortunately with the Supra you must rely on the mirrors and safety systems because the rear quarter blindspots are insane. Head checks for lane changes are basically a no go. The cabin also gave me slight vertigo after getting out after a long driving stint, it is sort of like sitting in a confined small fish bubble. Something about the way the front glass was curved along with the window shape did not agree with me.

Conclusion

I couldn't have asked for a better car to rent driving up the Pacific Coast Highway. I am also happy to have met and idol per se and experienced driving around with this car like it was a daily driver.

As it stands today I don't have the overwhelming urge to go out and purchase a Supra. I will keep my eye on prices of the upcoming manual transmission version, but I still think this is an expensive vehicle for what it is. Something like a BRZ/86 or Miata might be a better tool for me as a third vehicle that could pull track/autocross duty at a much cheaper price of entry and maintenance. Sure they do not have the powerful party trick that is the Twin Turbo Inline 6 cylinder engine but they are fun in their own way.