The first time we thought Toyota was ready to show us the new Supra was at the Geneva Auto Show. This turned out to be a concept for a race car that was shown wearing the Supra name to let us know what it could be for the racing series it would be offered in. More recently, another new version of the Supra was shown and once again we thought it would be the production model, but it wasn’t. Instead of the production version of the Supra, we were given a view of the new NASCAR Xfinity Series version of the car that will race next year.
A New Toyota in NASCAR
For the past several years, the NASCAR version of the Toyota car that has turned laps has been one that wore the Camry name. There’s never been another vehicle name that’s been more out of place than the Camry, but that’s about to be rectified. Starting with the opening race of the 2019 NASCAR season in Daytona, the name on the front of the Toyota cars that will run around the track will be Supra. This created a unique challenge for the Toyota Racing Division team.
Meeting the Challenge
Working together with their design partner, Calty Design Research of Newport Beach, CA, the Toyota Racing Development team has worked to figure out how to bring some of the new Supra personality to the car that will race around the track. Currently, Toyota is in the Camping World Truck Series, and the Monster Energy Cup Series, and now this new NASCAR Xfinity car needs to be ready to go. Because of the strict racing regulations, the team wasn’t able to change much from the previous Camry car, but they did find some areas that could be altered.
The only areas that can truly be alerted and modified in order to give the cars in this racing circuit the edge or look desired are the hood, upper half of the nose, front fenders, quarter windows, and the rear of the taillight. All other aspects of the design of the car must stay in strict compliance with regulations. Even so, these teams worked together to create a car that looks different and more interesting than most of the other Xfinity cars on the circuit. This is something for us to look forward to in the near future.
When Will We Have the Production Toyota Supra?
Thankfully, along with the information regarding the new NASCAR version of the Supra, the date for the launch of the production model is going to be during the 2020 model year. This new car won’t be built in Japan, but instead, this car will be assembled in Europe at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria as a result of the joint initiative with BMW and the Z4 team. The anticipation and wait are almost over and next year we get to see the Toyota name race around NASCAR wearing the Supra name before the production model arrives.
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