Why the four-cylinder Supra makes an ideal track car | Articles

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It’s tempting to always assume the most extreme option is the best. Why have the V6 when you can have the V8? And why pick the regular V8 over the supercharged V8? Who needs Dolby when there’s THX? Why settle for a Taco Supreme when another couple coins gets you an XXXtreme Double Crunch Super Supreme deep-fried in beef tallow and served in a ham purse? 

See, these seem like easy choices.

But a recent experience made me rethink my very American desire to check the most extreme boxes and assume they represent the best of all possible worlds.

That experience came in the form of the four-cylinder variant of the Toyota Supra. Now, I make no secrets about my love of the dynamic capabilities of the Supra. And when I was afforded an opportunity to get my Nürburgring competition permit behind the wheel of one of Rent4Ring’s brand-new Supras, I was excited to get to try out one of my favorite cars on one of my favorite tracks.

Then I found out it was the four-cylinder variant, and before I even set butt in the car, my initial feeling was one of reactionary disappointment.

Kindly reader, I am here to tell you I was so, so wrong.

We’ll talk more about the car, the program and the pleasure of working with Dale and his Rent4Ring crew in upcoming issues, but for now I want to address this more conceptually and say that after four years in a Corvette, maybe my brain has been spoiled a bit by power and lost its respect for balance. 

Not balance in the Thanos way, where his opening pitch maybe piqued some interest but then when he got to the mass genocide part he really lost me, but balance in the sense that each part of the whole complements the others, with nothing truly taking center stage in the presentation. A harmonious orchestra instead of a ripping guitar solo. An ensemble performance instead of one-actor Oscar bait. A delicious meal instead of a giant sizzling steak.

Sure, each of those sides of the coin has a certain appeal, but it’s hard to fully appreciate one without appreciating the other from time to time. And that’s what the theoretical 270-horsepower, four-banger Supra brought to the table. 

The four-cylinder model has the same great chassis as the 382-horsepower six variant does, but it lops two cylinders, representing nearly 300 pounds, right off the front of the motor and before…