Photo: bradbuilds/Instagram
The first Fast and Furious movie turned the Toyota Supra Mk IV into a household name. Suddenly, millions of kids thought it was the coolest car in the world, as you could extract a million horsepower from its 2JZ engine.
By that time, the Supra was almost dead. Toyota had pulled the model from U.S. showrooms in 1998 and stopped production in 2002. For over a decade after that, numerous tuners converted the sports coupe into one of the most deadly street racing machines on the planet.
But not many people know about the Supra's darker origin story. The Supra we have now is the 5th generation or A90, so there are three more relatively unknown models.
The Supra story starts in the 1960s, or the muscle car era. After Ford introduced the Mustang, it set all the sales records with its combination of style and available performance. Toyota, then a plucky Japanese automaker, wanted a slice of the action and introduced the Celica in 1970.
Eight years later, a high-performance version was finally available, the Celica XX. For some reason, the North American division didn't like the name so it dubbed the car "Toyota Celica Supra."
In 1981, the original Celica XX/Supra was updated to a new model, which Toyota called the A50. America called this the Mk II. One of those is probably worth about $15,000 to $20,000, depending on the condition. It's a fraction of what the Mk IVs cost, which tells you how little attention this gets.
But it's this early style of Supra that digital artist Brad Builds chose as the base for his cool rendering. As a child of the 80s, this car has boxy lines and square edges. The pop-up headlights remind us of the early RX-7, though manu sports car at that time had them.
A full widebody transformation is provided here, one which the artist says was inspired by the Ferrari F40. Maybe it's one of his F40 renderings because Italy never went that wild in the bodywork department.
But not many people know about the Supra's darker origin story. The Supra we have now is the 5th generation or A90, so there are three more relatively unknown models.
The Supra story starts in the 1960s, or the muscle car era. After Ford introduced the Mustang, it set all the sales records with its combination of style and available performance. Toyota, then a plucky Japanese automaker, wanted a slice of the action and introduced the Celica in 1970.
Eight years later, a high-performance version was finally available, the Celica XX. For some reason, the North American division didn't like the name so it dubbed the car "Toyota Celica Supra."
In 1981, the original Celica XX/Supra was updated to a new model, which Toyota called the A50. America called this the Mk II. One of those is probably worth about $15,000 to $20,000, depending on the condition. It's a fraction of what the Mk IVs cost, which tells you how little attention this gets.
But it's this early style of Supra that digital artist Brad Builds chose as the base for his cool rendering. As a child of the 80s, this car has boxy lines and square edges. The pop-up headlights remind us of the early RX-7, though manu sports car at that time had them.
A full widebody transformation is provided here, one which the artist says was inspired by the Ferrari F40. Maybe it's one of his F40 renderings because Italy never went that wild in the bodywork department.
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