Teasers, teasers, and more teasers. Toyota has taken a page out of the Edsel marketing manual – and only time will tell if they’ll suffer the same, over-hyped fate that befell the Edsel. The “2019” Toyota Supra is positioning itself to take the roads back in an encore that we’ve been waiting for longer than we can remember, at this point.
The teasing is getting more acute as we’re fed more now, than just simple imagery – the silky-smooth hum of new Supra can be heard here blazing through a test course in an intentionally-blurred preview of the most exciting thing they’ve brewed up since the rear-wheel FRS. The lack of a forced-induction option from the factory hampered anything that the FRS could ever amount to as a factory performance car – but it was still cool. However, with the proliferating adoration for the legendary Supra, will Toyota make Ford’s mistake and oversell the Supra?
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A brief history of Ford’s Edsel failure would remember it to be Ford’s biggest financial blunder in 100 years — and it wasn’t because the Edsel was all that bad, either. Ford oversold the public for over a year in a costly teaser campaign that led them to believe the Edsel was going to be a spaceship — when it was just a regular car with a funny grille, people detested it immediately. The total loss is estimated to be $350 million 1958 dollars — a valuable lesson in public affairs, in hindsight.
Bringing it all back home: is Toyota on the same road to a detestable debut? The Supra has been pounding the pavement and terrorizing industrial back roads since the late-‘70s; it was produced until 2002. Its cancelation brought a deep sadness for many loyal Supra groupies that never quite healed correctly. When it’s reintroduction was announced, there was obviously a good deal of positive emotion flourishing. But now, with nothing more than a long list of teasers and tantalizing imagery, people are more anxious than ever to get their hands on one.
Aside from a Geneva Motor Show GR Racing concept in 2018 (and a whole lot of CG “previews”) we’ve really seen nothing more than a sporty-looking Toyota wrapped in camo, playing around at Nurbürgring. The new Supra sounds awesome — there’s little room to argue there. The engine seems to have mountains of power to spare as it climes aggressively through the power band. Satisfying pops from the exhaust crumple the smooth hum of the engine as it winds down from high RPM, and the video seems to be a fair indicator of what a few wide-open throttle pulls sound like shooting down the asphalt.
With all of this exciting news percolating just out of reach, how much more teasing can we really take?