Launched in May 1993 and produced until August 2002, the fourth-generation Toyota Supra — internally A80, commonly Mk IV — was Toyota's flagship sports coupe and the technical halo for the company's late-1990s performance programme. Built on a shortened, stiffened version of the Aristo / Lexus GS platform, it paired a 3.0-litre inline-six with double-wishbone suspension at all four corners and, on the top variant, sequential twin turbochargers from Hitachi. In Japanese-market RZ trim the twin-turbo 2JZ-GTE was officially rated at 280 PS, the limit of the Japanese gentlemen's agreement; export cars were re-rated and ran higher boost, producing 320 hp in US and European specification.
Production split into the naturally-aspirated SZ and SZ-R (2JZ-GE, ~220 hp) and the twin-turbo RZ / Turbo (2JZ-GTE). A six-speed Getrag V160 manual was offered with the turbo car — a gearbox now widely regarded as one of the strongest fitted to a road car of its era — alongside a four-speed automatic. The Sport Roof, a removable targa-style roof panel, was offered in most markets and is now the most desirable body configuration. Export to the United States ended after the 1998 model year; production for Japan continued until 2002.
The A80 is the moment Japanese performance engineering caught up with — and in raw capability often overtook — its European peers, and it did so with a powertrain whose long-term reputation has become almost mythological. The cast-iron 2JZ-GTE block, closed-deck construction and forged rotating assembly are routinely cited as the reason a stock bottom end can absorb power outputs well beyond the factory rating. For a generation of buyers introduced to the car through motorsport, period magazine tests and later popular culture, the A80 is the defining 1990s Japanese GT. For collectors, original twin-turbo six-speed cars with documented history and unmodified drivetrains now sit clearly inside the modern-classic blue-chip set.
