The born-again Toyota Supra will be one of the stars of the upcoming SEMA show, an annual event dedicated to tuners and aftermarket parts. The model has always played a starring role in the event due to its godlike status with the tuning crowd, so Toyota will ensure the fifth generation of the nameplate unveiled earlier in 2019 makes a star-studded SEMA debut by introducing a concept car called the Supra 3000GT.
You’re absolutely right if you’re thinking the 3000GT was a Mitsubishi, but it was also the name given to a limited-edition evolution of the fourth-generation Supra unveiled in 1994. It was inspired by the world of racing, and a teaser video published by TRD, Toyota’s racing division, suggests the 2019 reincarnation will be, too. An outline of the car shows a massive rear wing we’d expect to see on a race car, and we’re pretty sure it’s wearing a new body kit that adds deeper side skirts and a bigger front bumper. We’re hoping the original car’s vented hood returns, too, but the outline doesn’t show it.
The teaser video makes no mention of technical specifications. Power for the regular Supra comes from a 3.0-liter straight-six engine turbocharged to make 335 horsepower and 365 pound-feet of torque. We know the engine is tunable, because it delivers 382 horses and 369 pound-feet of twist when it’s dropped between the fenders of the BMW Z4, the car the Supra is based on. That’s likely not its upper limit, either.
Toyota hasn’t revealed what the future holds for the Supra 3000GT concept. One possibility is that, as its name implies, it’s just a concept built to show what the firm is capable of, and one of the directions its vehicle development team can take the Supra platform in. Another guess that doesn’t sound overly far-fetched is that the concept could be a thinly veiled preview of a limited-edition production model, like the 1994 original. Finally, we can’t rule out that Toyota will sell the parts it added to the Supra to create the 3000GT concept to enthusiasts, either individually or as a kit.
We’ll know for sure when the 2019 Toyota Supra 3000GT concept makes its public debut in Las Vegas on November 5. Bring earplugs; this thing is going to be loud.
