The Toyota Supra returns with better performance than ever before, but it leans heavily on BMW for everything but its exterior styling. Should that matter?

The 2020 Toyota GR Supra is one of the most eagerly anticipated cars of this year. One could argue the all-new, mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette made a bigger splash, but that came seemingly out of nowhere. The hype train for the new Supra left the station back when Toyota’s FT-1 Concept bowed in 2014. And now that it’s back, we’re very excited.

But along the way, certain announcements and press releases arrived, and rumours began of a team-up with BMW for the engine and eventually even the chassis. According to Toyota, it would have cost a billion dollars to develop its own turbocharged inline 6-cylinder engine for the Supra, and BMW happens to be really good at making those. Considering the straight six was a core component of the Supra’s heritage, it was a natural partnership. But for the chassis, too? At some point, when does this stop being a new Toyota and instead become just a rebadged and re-skinned BMW? After a 22-year absence in North America, it would have been nice to see a completely homegrown Toyota sports car.

This criticism is not unfounded, especially since this is allegedly such an important car for Toyota. Partnerships like this happen all the time in the industry, but as we’ll explore in the following chapters, seldom is the DNA of one automaker so evident in another’s vehicle. We needed to find out if the Supra’s driving dynamics make up for its controversy, and the only way to get to the heart of this vehicle was on the track.