The Toyota Supra is not precisely the primary automobile that involves thoughts while you consider stage rally. It is a low-slung, rear-drive, two-door coupe meant for carving corners and setting lap occasions. However as the parents on the Group O’Neil Rally Faculty present, the Supra can very a lot maintain its personal on a correct rally stage.
Admittedly, this Supra is much from inventory. Modified by the Capitan Crankshaft YouTube channel, it has a half-cage, gravel-spec tires, and long-travel rally suspension (on the entrance finish, anyway). But it surely nonetheless retains its rear-driven structure and BMW-sourced turbocharged straight-six engine. And it is all the higher for it.
Wyatt Knox, lead teacher at Group O’Neil, has excessive reward for the Supra whereas testing on the faculty’s gravel dealing with course. Regardless of its road-focused ABS system, this Toyota can rotate underneath braking, and it is easy to slip. In a stunning twist, Knox additionally compliments the eight-speed automated transmission for its fast response and simple operation. He goes as far as to say he prefers to have it over the handbook, since he can give attention to the fixed steering and pedal inputs as an alternative.
The Supra is greater than only a drift machine. It might set some spectacular occasions, too. Knox took the automobile to Group O’Neil’s timed rally stage, the place it was capable of set a good 2-minute and 9-second stage time. Sadly it is powerful to check that point to both the winter stage occasions or the summer time stage occasions, because the surfaces for every time of the 12 months are vastly completely different.
If we evaluate the Supra’s time to different occasions set in winter, it is the second-quickest automobile ever, beating out a legit Ford Fiesta rally automobile and the Subaru WRX. However when you evaluate it to the occasions set in summer time, it was among the many slowest, dropping out to even the Kia Sedona.
There’s just one answer: Carry the automobile again to the stage when it is nicer out. This manner we are able to actually see how well-suited a Supra will be on gravel.
