Monday, April 14, 2008

Toyota Supra



The Toyota Supra was a sports car/grand tourer produced by Toyota Motor Company from 1979 to 2002. The styling of the Toyota Supra was derived from the Toyota Celica, but it was both longer and wider.Starting in mid-1986, the Supra (in its third generation, MKIII) became its own model and was no longer based on the Celica. In turn, Toyota also stopped using the prefix Celica and began just calling the car Supra.[4] Due to the similarity and past of the Toyota Celica's name, it is frequently mistaken for the Toyota Supra, and vice versa.

The Supra also traces much of its roots back to the Toyota 2000GT with the main instance being its engine. The first three generations were offered with a direct descendant to the 2000GT's M engine. All four generations of Supra produced have an inline 6-cylinder engine.

Along with this name and car Toyota also included its own logo for the Supra. It is derived from the original Celica logo, being blue instead of orange. This logo was used until January 1986, when the MKIII Supra was introduced. The new logo was similar in size, with orange writing on a red background, but without the dragon design. That logo, in turn, was on Supras until the 1989 redesign when Toyota switched to its current oval company logo.

In 1999, Toyota ceased sales of the Supra in the United States and in 2002 Toyota officially stopped production of the Supra in Japan.

As an iconic sportscar, the Supra has appeared in numerous video games, movies, music videos and TV shows. Some of the most notable appearances include the Gran Turismo and Need for Speed series of video games and the 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious.

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