Dyno Tests Show Supra is More Powerful Than Toyota Says
Toyota says the BMW-developed, twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder in the new Supra sports car makes 335 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque, but dyno testing by Car and Driver shows the automaker very likely underrated the true figures.
This may not come as a surprise, as BMW already has somewhat of a reputation for doing this, and as the Supra has already been shown to be quicker in the 0-60 than Toyota claimed. But the extent to which Toyota underrated the Supra is still a little stunning.
Car and Driver tested the Supra at Livernois Motorsports and Engineering in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and found that the car actually produced 339 horsepower and a whopping 427 lb-ft of torque. This is doubly impressive because while these dyno figures represent power output at the wheels (known as whp), Toyota’s advertised numbers are at the crank (known as bhp). Because power is lost in the driveline, you would normally expect whp to be lower than bhp, not the other way around.
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This is how Car and Driver says they did it: “We strapped the Supra to the Dynojet all-wheel-drive dynamometer, as the car’s stability systems only play nice when all four wheels are spinning. For this observation, we ran the test in the eight-speed automatic transmission’s fifth-gear ratio of 1.32:1 to achieve a full sweep of the tachometer. We experimented with the 1.00:1 ratio of sixth gear but were unable to reach the engine’s redline. The power output in sixth gear, however, matched our results of those in the higher gear.”
The 2020 Toyota GR Supra’s development benchmark was the Porsche Cayman S, arguably the best sports car you can buy in the price segment. These new dyno results might explain why the Supra, which costs about 20 grand less, is even faster than the Cayman according to many of the journalists who have already tested it.
So far, the new Supra is looking like a gem for car enthusiasts.
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News Source: Car and Driver
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