Friday, July 24, 2015

Next-Gen Supra May Aim Between Porsche 911 and Cayman

BOLD RIDE

 
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Amidst all the highly anticipated cars to arrive in the coming years…one name continues to rise to the top of the “must-have” list. The Toyota Supra. The legendary sportscar is expected to return for 2018 as one piece of BMW and Toyota’s “Silk Road” partnership, and according to sources, it may take swipes at the Porsche 911 and Boxster/Cayman.
 
Australia’s Motoring has reported that the next-generation Supra (and its BMW counterpart) will be “about the size of a 911” and could produce around 470 horsepower in its tip-top variants.

Although unconfirmed, the publication suggests that power in the BMW branded sports car will emanate from one of three powertrain layouts: a BMW 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, 3.0-liter turbocharged straight-six, or from the six-cylinder with the addition of a Toyota hybrid system.

 The Supra is claimed to only utilize the two six-cylinder options, with the latter allegedly generating that rowdy 470 horsepower figure.

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That claimed top-end power output, though unconfirmed (and likely to stay that way for months and months), would put the next-generation Toyota Supra and BMW Z4 successor in the midst of the Porsche range, matching nicely against current ratings for the tippy-top 385 hp Cayman GT4, mid-range 430 hp 911 Carrera GTS, and within swinging distance but still off higher tier models like the 520 hp 911 Turbo.

Though both Porsche models are expected to grow in power in the coming years, splitting the difference and exploiting the performance gap between the popular Porsche sports cars could pay dividends for BMW and Toyota, rather than attacking each individual model head-on.

That being said, if BMW’s current four- and six-cylinder turbocharged engines find homes within the low- and mid-level Silk Road cars, that would likely put these in line with the Boxster and Cayman. Only time will tell if these power approximations are accurate, though fans are surely chomping at the bit to know.

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