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We Know a Little More About the Next BMW Z4/Toyota Supra

by Frédérick Boucher-Gaulin
Toyota FT-1 Concept
Photo: Toyota

New details about the future sports car born of the BMW/Toyota union have just surfaced. The German version will be called the Z4, while the Toyota model may be called the Supra.

The latest rumors talk about a 2-seater sports car, with a four cylinder of no more than 2 liters. The power will be sent to the rear wheels via a sequential gearbox, just like the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance racer. Speaking of LMP1 cars, Toyota plans on using another piece of tech from this race program.

There is talk of fitting the future sport car’s brakes with an energy recovery system. This energy would then be sent to a supercapacitor. If the driver needs a burst of speed (for overtaking, or just before a sweet jump…) they can push a button on the steering wheel, and the power stored in the capacitors will be sent to a pair of electric motors in the front wheels. The car would then be an all-wheel drive car, at least temporarily. Toyota chose to use supercapacitors because they can store and release energy faster than batteries.

If you drove a last-gen Supra, you will probably miss the sweet-sounding inline 6 and the ridiculously long turbo lag. These cars needed to be tamed. You had to know exactly when the big turbo would start boosting, or else you were in for a nasty surprise.

But the Z4/Supra is far from done yet, and the automakers may yet surprise us.

For example, BMW already make a very nice inline 6, in the M3/M4…

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