The Toyota Supra isn’t exactly the first car that comes to mind when you think of stage rally. It’s a low-slung, rear-drive, two-door coupe meant for carving corners and setting lap times. But as the folks at the Team O’Neil Rally School show, the Supra can very much hold its own on a proper rally stage.
Admittedly, this Supra is far from stock. Modified by the Capitan Crankshaft YouTube channel, it has a half-cage, gravel-spec tires, and long-travel rally suspension (on the front end, anyway). But it still retains its rear-driven architecture and BMW-sourced turbocharged straight-six engine. And it’s all the better for it.
Wyatt Knox, lead instructor at Team O’Neil, has high praise for the Supra while testing at the school’s gravel handling course. Despite its road-focused ABS system, this Toyota can rotate under braking, and it’s easy to slide. In a surprising twist, Knox also compliments the eight-speed automatic transmission for its quick response and easy operation. He goes so far as to say he prefers to have it over the manual, since he can focus on the constant steering and pedal inputs instead.
The Supra is more than just a drift machine. It can set some impressive times, too. Knox took the car to Team O’Neil’s timed rally stage, where it was able to set a respectable 2-minute and 9-second stage time. Unfortunately it’s tough to compare that time to either the winter stage times or the summer stage times, as the surfaces for each time of the year are vastly different.
If we compare the Supra’s time to other times set in winter, it’s the second-quickest car ever, beating out a legit Ford Fiesta rally car and the Subaru WRX. But if you compare it to the times set in summer, it was among the slowest, losing out to even the Kia Sedona.
There’s only one solution: Bring the car back to the stage when it’s nicer out. This way we can really see how well-suited a Supra can be on gravel.
