1989 Toyota Supra Turbo

The Story

By 1989 the third-generation Toyota Supra had fully shed the sporty-coupe roots of its Celica-derived ancestors and grown into a serious, standalone grand tourer. The flagship Turbo paired a 3.0-liter 7M-GTE inline-six with a turbocharger and intercooler, an engine that was also Toyota's first distributorless design sold in the United States. It signaled a company at the height of its late-1980s technical confidence, willing to spend big on engineering to chase European and American rivals on their own turf.

Output stood at 232 horsepower, enough to push the long, low liftback from rest to sixty miles per hour in the low-six-second range, genuinely quick for a car of its era and considerable heft. A standard limited-slip differential and available Toyota Electronic Modulated Suspension underlined the high-tech ambitions of the model, while a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic let buyers choose between sporting intent and effortless cruising. The Supra was heavy, but it carried its weight with composure and serious long-distance pace. Big four-wheel disc brakes and a sophisticated independent suspension kept the chassis well ahead of the muscle-bound competition, and contemporary reviewers praised its blend of straight-line muscle and surprising poise through fast sweepers.

The car wore its technology proudly. Inside sat a driver-focused cockpit dense with gauges and switches, supportive seats and available leather, all framing a wedge profile with pop-up headlamps that defined late-1980s Japanese performance design. The cabin made it as much a comfortable continent-crosser as a back-road weapon, and the removable roof panel added open-air appeal. This was a Supra meant to swallow highway miles in refined, turbocharged comfort.

Though overshadowed today by the legendary twin-turbo Mk IV that followed in 1993, the A70 Turbo is a crucial chapter in the Supra story and an increasingly collectible slice of the bubble-era Japanese performance boom. Many were modified or driven hard when new, which makes clean, unmolested examples genuinely difficult to find. As appreciation for 1980s Japanese classics climbs, this once-overlooked grand tourer is finally earning the recognition its ambitious engineering always deserved. Well-kept Turbos, prized for their stout 7M-GTE six and unmistakable wedge styling, now sit firmly on the radar of collectors who once chased only their European contemporaries.