• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • First Look: Kia Pushes Boundaries with New EV9
  • Lucid Moves to Cut 1,300 Employees
  • Rebooted Meyers Manx Returns to Its Racing Roots, Sponsors NORRA 1000 Race
  • Spring Cleaning Includes Your Car
  • Fifty Million Apartment Dwellers Need a Way to Plug In
  • Tesla Back in Court on $137M Race Discrimination Suit
  • E-Fuels Provide a Lifeline for Ferrari and Porsche
  • Upstart Fain Sworn in as UAW President on Eve of Bargaining Convention
  • Week Ahead: UAW Gets a New Leader
  • The Rearview Mirror: Ford’s High-End Failure
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 AWD Pro S
    • A Week With: 2023 Infiniti QX80
    • A Week With: 2023 Genesis GV80 Prestige 3.5 Turbo
    • First Drive: 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T
    • First Drive: 2023 Dodge Hornet GT
    • First Drive: 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70
    • First Drive: 2023 Nissan Ariya e-4orce AWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Jeep Compass Limited
    • A Week With: 2023 Cadillac Escalade V-Series
    • A Week With: 2023 Volvo XC40 AWD Ultimate
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > reviews > Behind the Scenes: How Toyota and BMW Teamed up to Develop New Z4, Supra

        Behind the Scenes: How Toyota and BMW Teamed up to Develop New Z4, Supra

        You can't cost-cut your way to a world-class sports car.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        May 13, 2019
        Tetsuya Tada, chief engineer for the 2020 Toyota GR Supra flashes a thumbs-up during the sports car's first media drive.

        (This story has been corrected to reflect the proper spelling of Supra Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada.)

        The call came as a surprise. The chief engineer overseeing Toyota’s joint venture with Subaru that resulted in the 86 sports car, Tetsuya Tada was attending a media event in Barcelona when he was asked to jump on a flight for Munich seven years ago this month.

        “Don’t tell anybody,” his boss said, and didn’t give Tada himself much to go on, beyond advising him there would be a car waiting at the airport. Once he arrived, the Toyota veteran learned he was being driven over to BMW headquarters, putting into motion one of the most unusual alliances in the history of either manufacturer.

        Beyond the Headlines!

        Almost seven years to the day after that first meeting, Tada is sharing a dinner in suburban Washington, D.C. and, for the first time, revealing the back story of what eventually became the 2020 Toyota GR Supra – as well as the new BMW Z4.

        (Click Here for our review of the 2020 Toyota GR Supra.)

        At that point, it had already been 14 years since the Japanese automaker had pulled the third-generation Supra from production and it was a sticking point for Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda. The grandson of the company founder and a serious performance driver, Toyoda was desperate to change the carmaker’s plain-vanilla image, and was fond of working the word, “passion” into any discussion about what sort of products Toyota should be building.

        BMW wanted the equivalent of a Porsche Boxster. Toyota wanted its own Porsche Cayman.

        The problem was that there wasn’t a reasonable business case for Toyota bringing Supra back into production – at least not on its own. But Tada had shown there was an alternative solution, steering the joint venture with Subaru that resulted in not only that company’s BRZ model but the Toyota 86. Could the Japanese automaker come up with a similar plan with BMW?

        Initially, it seemed like the answer was going to be “no.” The initial meetings seemed to find the two companies focusing on very different ideas. “The initial reception was lukewarm,” Tada explained over dinner last week. The team led by Herbert Diess, then BMW’s head of engineering, seemed more interested in coming up with a volume model than a sports car, and one that would utilize an existing BMW platform.

        Suddenly, there was a shake-up at BMW’s distinctively styled Munich corporate headquarters. Diess was gone – headed for Volkswagen where he is now the CEO. “All of a sudden, the conversation shifted,” and the new BMW team, said Tada, seemed much more open to the project.

        (Toyota set to unleash flood of 19 new products. Click Here for the story.)

        While both companies had open minds about what they would develop, both knew that they needed to find a way to hold down costs – the biggest obstacle to them developing a new Z4 and Supra independently. But Tada said a critical moment came at a meeting in Munich, when his BMW counterpart stressed “You can’t do this type of car based on cost savings.” It had to be the best car possible for each company.

        The Supra does have its controversies, including the decision to us a BMW I-6 powertrain.

        As things started falling into place, it became clear that an entirely new platform would be needed, and one that would adopt the “Golden Ration,” or classic sports car proportions: a short wheelbase, a wide track and a low center of gravity. But where Toyota wanted a Supra coupe, BMW was looking at a replacement for the Z4 roadster. The solution was to view the project as creating the equivalent of the hardtop Porsche Cayman and the convertible Porsche Boxster.

        Perhaps the biggest surprise of the story turns out to be the fact that the BMW and Toyota teams “completely separated” in 2014, soon after the basic decisions on the common platform were reached, noted Tada. From that point on, they worked independently, with only occasional communications.

        Toda himself claims he’s spent less than an hour in the new Z4 and isn’t sure his BMW counterpart has yet driven the new Supra. That said, Tada described the German roadster as “a fabulous car. If I were going to buy a convertible today it would be the Z4.”

        One could argue that there’s still a lot of European DNA in the new Supra, veteran Belgian race driver Herwig Deanens overseeing the development of the Toyota sports car’s dynamics.

        The Supra chief engineer goes to great length, during a lengthy dinner conversation, to stress that the Toyota sports car isn’t just a Z4 in another skin, but he does acknowledge that there are some shared elements. That includes a modified version of the suspension used for the latest BMW 3-Series. That approach not only helped hold down costs but also means it will be easier to get aftermarket components that can be used on both Z4 and Supra.

        The strong dynamics and performance of the new GR Supra are earnings it kudos.

        Another key decision – and one generating significant debate – was the decision to share BMW’s 3.0-liter inline-six engine, rather than one of Toyota’s off-the-shelf powertrains. The simple explanation is “balance,” says Tada. That is something that no other type of engine can match, he asserts, and Toyota simply didn’t have an inline-six of its own. That’s not the only controversy, however. Critics question why Supra’s package makes just 335 horsepower and 365 pound-feet of torque, compared to Z4’s 382 hp and 369 lb-ft. Again, says Tada, “it’s all about balance. More power isn’t necessarily better.”

        (Click Here to check out the new Toyota Corolla Hybrid.)

        Far less controversial is the fact that the Z4 and Supra boast distinctively different styling. That’s a lesson Tada learned from the joint venture with Subaru, taking heat for the fact that the 86 and BR-Z are all but identical, whether talking about ride or design.

        It’s clear that the partnership with BMW was a challenging one. It took six years for the Bavarian automaker to get its Z4 into production and another year before Toyota was ready with the Supra.

        It helped, Tada acknowledges, that the project had the strong support of Toyota CEO Toyoda. “A normal businessman would have told me to scuttle the program.”

        Whether the unusual project was justified is yet uncertain. Clearly, the results of the joint venture are coming at a relatively inopportune moment, sedans, coupes and sports cars losing ground rapidly to SUVs, CUVs and pickups. But initial reaction to both Z4 and, now, the 2020 Toyota GR Supra has been overwhelmingly positive. Now, the Japanese automaker will have to wait to see if that translates into sales.

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published
        2023 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 manual front driving

        A Week With: 2023 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 Manual

        March 10, 2023

        A Week With: 2023 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe

        Jan. 20, 2023
        2023 Nissan Z best

        A Week With: 2023 Nissan Z

        Dec. 16, 2022

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        What Are You Looking For?

        See More
        Buying a car? See our recommended reviews and guides.
        Buying a car? See our recommended reviews and guides.
        Reviews and Resources When You Are Looking For a New Car
        Collection
        Car Reviews and Guides
        Collection

        Car Reviews and Guides
        Recommends
        The Best Car Insurance Companies in 2022 (with Costs)
        Recommends

        The Best Car Insurance Companies in 2022 (with Costs)
        Recommends
        Best Car Warranties – 2021 Comparison (Factory & Extended)
        Recommends

        Best Car Warranties – 2021 Comparison (Factory & Extended)
        Recommends
        7 Best Car Shipping Companies: Consumer Guide (2022)
        Recommends

        7 Best Car Shipping Companies: Consumer Guide (2022)
        Close
        Reviews and Resources When You Are Looking For a New Car
        Collection
        Car Reviews and Guides
        Collection

        Car Reviews and Guides
        Recommends
        The Best Car Insurance Companies in 2022 (with Costs)
        Recommends

        The Best Car Insurance Companies in 2022 (with Costs)
        Recommends
        Best Car Warranties – 2021 Comparison (Factory & Extended)
        Recommends

        Best Car Warranties – 2021 Comparison (Factory & Extended)
        Recommends
        7 Best Car Shipping Companies: Consumer Guide (2022)
        Recommends

        7 Best Car Shipping Companies: Consumer Guide (2022)
        Close
        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: