Toyota Is Building A V8-Powered Supra, But You Can't Buy It

Image: Toyota

Toyota Australia has announced that it will be joining Chevrolet and Ford in Australia’s Repco Supercars championship for the 2026 season with at least four A90-generation Supras. The manufacturer has tapped Walkinshaw Andretti United as its lead development team, and drivers Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood will pilot these GR machines. A second team will be announced before the car’s on-track debut. With Toyota already involved in FIA WEC Hypercar, NASCAR, and WRC, the Japanese automaker is making sure to cover all of its racing bases.

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While the street-going Supra is powered by turbocharged BMW-supplied inline-four and inline-six engines, the Supercar racer will use Toyota’s own 2UR-GSE aluminum quad-cam V8 engines. This is the same basic engine as what Gazoo Racing used to win Dakar in 2019, and quite similar to the V8 Lexus uses in its championship-winning IMSA GT Daytona RC F GT3s. The engine will slot into a Supercars Gen 3 tube frame chassis with Supra-esque bodywork. Hopefully it’ll look better than the “Supra” that Toyota uses in NASCAR’s Xfinity series.

“At Toyota, we have been toying with the idea of competing in Supercars for more than 20 years and now with the right car, the right team, and a very strong partnership with the Repco Supercars Championship, the time is definitely right,” Toyota Australia VP sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley said.

“This is truly an historic moment. Our GR brand and performance cars were built on the knowledge that we gain from participating in top-level motorsport and our entry into the Supercars Championship will cement that connection and give us the opportunity to showcase TOYOTA GAZOO Racing excitement to a wide audience of passionate fans.”

Supercars CEO Shane Howard called this a testament to the “immense popularity and international appeal” of the series, as well as “an incredible honor.”

For now the car has only been shown in renders and a scale clay model, but a full-sized example will be displayed at the Repco Bathurst 1000 on October 10-13.