You may have heard of Toyota Supra's since Toyota's been selling (a bizarre looking) one built in partnership with BMW since 2019. However, seeing Toyota hasn't made a Celica since 2006, stumbling across a Celica Supra is even more of a what-is-that? I can't tell you the last time I saw one of these in the wild. This is a 1982 Toyota Celica Supra I found in the parking garage of the increasingly snooty and lock-jawed open-air mall near our home here on Cleveland, Ohio's westside. I wish I had taken more pictures of it.
Yes, Celica Supra. From 1978 through 1986, the Supra was to the Celica, technically Toyota's "pony-car", what the Z28 and Trans Am were to the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. Well, that's a bit of a stretch seeing how different a Celica Supra was from a garden-variety Celica but I hope you get the point. A Z28 and Trans Am were "all" Camaro and Firebird whereas Toyota grafted on as much as eight-inches onto the front of a Celica so they could put their six-cylinder engine in. There were other changes as well but the bigger schnozz was the largest and most obvious alteration.
Hard to fathom it took Toyota almost an entire decade to come up with an answer to Datsun's seminal if not world-changing Z-car. But it did. Datsun, now known as Nissan, introduced the 240Z in 1969, Toyota didn't roll out the first Celica Supra until 1978 and they started importing them to the U.S. in 1979. Although it was more of a luxury grand-tourer than sports car, taste-makers and fashionistas couldn't get enough of them despite their huge front ends (that somehow looked good) no to mention their lordly $10,000+ sticker prices. The Datsun Z-car's performance by the end of the '70's had been softened as well and luxury accouterments and gizmos turned it into sort of a Japanese Chevrolet Monte Carlo. But two-magnificently crafted, sporty Japanese cars to choose from? Yes, please.
Toyota got serious about making the Supra a real sports car, or more of a one, come 1982. Aggressive styling, a larger, now double-overhead-cam inline-six cylinder engine, independent rear suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, magnificent seats and a five-speed manual in an age of four-speeds made for an out-of-this-world, "affordable" grand-touring car that was more bargain basement Porsche than Camaro or Firebird.
It was so good it was named Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year for 1982 and made Car and Driver's Best10 list. Heady stuff.
If there was any issue it was they were expensive; a performance-spec Supra for '82 went out the door for nearly $16,000 when tax and other ancillary charges were tacked on. You could get a loaded Camaro Z28, which was all new for '82 as well, for around $11,000 out the door. But you got what you paid for.
Frankly, our '82 Supra here was vastly superior to the half-baked '82 Camaro Z28 and Trans Am; a last year for the third-generation or "C3" 1982 Corvette that stickered for around $23,000 at the time as well. So, to the enlightened, well-heeled buyer, the Supra was a terrific if not brilliant buy. It was a much better daily driver than a fourth-generation or C4 Corvette too.
Toyota ended production for these second-generation Supra's, officially, for 1985, but a surplus of models and a delay in production of the third generation of "Supra's" meant there were two Supra's for 1986. The "old" Supra, still marketed as the Celica Supra and a new model known simply as Supra that shared little if anything with an also new-for-1986, front wheel drive Celica. If that sounds confusing, you're right. Then again, Toyota did so much right back in the 1980's that they could get away with making a marketing faux pas or two.
Owners of Jaguars, Aston Martin's and BMW's have a nasty habit of parking their toys diagonally taking up two or more spaces at a time in this garage and it irritates me. Especially this time of the year. However, if any car in this garage deserves to be parked sideways at any time without getting a stink eye from yours truly it's this old beauty.
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