[franzcars]

I chose to buy a TT/Auto RHD supra instead of a Auto or swapped NA LHD car for around the same price and am very happy I went that way. Living in the Midwest it's always fun to see the look on peoples faces when I roll up to a light in a RHD car, plus it helped knock 2 items off my bucket list, owning a RHD car and a MkIv Supra. Will it ever be worth what a LHD is? No, do I care because I love the car and have no interest in selling it? Not at all.

Also Driving RHD in a LHD country isnt as terrible as everyone says it is. Are there times it's annoying to turn? Yeah, but usually I just wait a few extra seconds for a nice big gap and move on

 

[JDMSteven]

I knew I was buying a MKIV at some point, and although I could afford to get either LHD or RHD, I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra ~$15-25k premium that an LHD seems to bring in the US. I'll drive my RHD around a little and unless it's unbearable, I would imagine I will keep RHD. I also only intend to put around 3k mi/yr on it, as that's about how many miles I put on my other weekend toy (BMW M6), so sitting on the "wrong" side of the car probably won't bother me that much.

 

[JDMSteven]

@franzcars curious as to why you went with an auto and not a manual? the ONLY way I would buy a MKIV auto is if it was so cheap that it was worth it to do a manual conversion.

 

[Mrsadat]

The blocks are the same and the handling differences, if any, are determined by the option package/parts installed and have nothing to do with the steering wheel placement.

The turbos are different yes but there's tradeoffs. The Japanese spec turbos are CT20's with ceramic turbine wheels; while they're weaker and tend to fail when the boost is cranked way up, the turbine wheels themselves are slightly larger than the CT12B's found on the US spec 2JZ-GTE. So for max HP in the original housings the JDM turbos are better but they'll fail quickly. Using steel turbine wheels to rebuild them etc the Japanese spec turbos can make more HP than stock US spec turbos. But stock twins are a challenge to mess with and most folks replace all the parts that are different between the US spec and Japanese spec 2JZ-GTE.




For the most part, yes. The JDM Supras had a lot more option packages and different parts available. That's why there's so many JDM NA Supras (SZ model) that have no ABS, JDM TT (RZ model) that have small brakes and 16in wheels, etc. So getting a low optioned JDM Supra is typically inferior to most US spec Supras.

US cars were basically picking NA or TT, auto or manual, sport roof or hardtop, and picking a color. All US Supras had ABS, all US turbo cars had the bigger brakes and 17's and an LSD (the LSD became optional in the option list in US spec TT autos from 97-98 but I've never seen one that didn't have a factory LSD) etc etc.

Otherwise, yeah. JDM 2JZ-GTE's had somewhat less potent/long-lived turbos, smaller 440cc high imp injectors, a smaller intake cam, and a different ECU to match.

US 2JZ-GTE's had the CT12B turbos with steel turbine wheels, larger 550cc low imp injectors, a slightly bigger intake cam, and an ECU to match that included a MAFS instead of running MAP like a JDM ECU did.

Since most everyone changes the turbos, the fuel system, the cams, and the ECU; which engine you start with is largely irrelevant these days.

Thank you very much for breaking it down for the community.

 

[Mrsadat]

Your poll doesn’t even align with your question.

I apologize for the poll, I was trying to take it down.

 

[Wreckless]

I specifically bought my RHD supra to stay in line with my usual car buying habits. I never buy myself the nicest example of a car ( I also import and trade cars those are always nicer then my personal vehicles) because I tend to drive them a lot. My philosophy is to drive and enjoy a fun car everyday, Im averaging about 14000 kilometers a year on my mkiv right now, used to be 20000 but I got a new job with a way shorter commute. And I like the job, but miss the commute actually......

RHD for me is just easier to trash around in and truly make your own, plus its a really fun experience and for me adds even more uniqueness to the ownership experience. But unfortunately I am also a victim to the LHD snobbery, theres nothing you can do with these LHD owners who have ownend the car for 15 years and bought them at their absolute lowest price point for far less then even a RHD one costs these days. They are just stuck in their superiority complex even though they dont have the money to drive or modify their cars even though they ofcourse keep talking about doing their 600hp build like they have been for the past 15 years......... I fully agree with @Wreckless, especially these guys are the worst.

Most LHD Mk4 owners are like Mk3 owners in the sense that they both talk endlessy about buiding an driving their cars but lacking the means to actually do so.
It just that LHD mk4 owners are usually stuck up supremists who are to insecure to show their true colours and that Mk3 owners are actually really nice cool people who you can drink a beer with, as long as you pay for the beer ofcourse, they need the money to fix their monthly headgasket. ( all a bit tongue in cheek ofcourse, I have ownend two 2 mk3's and one mk4 so far)

I think you might have misunderstood me - I was speaking specifically of the collector-type LHD owners that bought stupid low mile and stock or near-stock Supras specifically as a collector car, to sit on it and enjoy a through-the-cargo-shorts circle jerk with other collector types before flipping it for a profit.

Certainly, there's long time LHD owners like myself that benefited from spending less than what they currently cost. Looking at the CPI and other metrics for currency value, I'd argue that the 'regular guy' examples of these cars didn't really go up all that much, and what happened is money just ain't worth shit anymore. But that's another discussion for another time and place.

Yes, there's a few OG MK4 guys that are getting smug and cunty about the sharp spike in LHD values, but I emphatically reject that they're 'the usual' for LHD Supra owners.
Chances are very high that they were smug and cunty all along, and years ago they were the ones talking shit about MK3's, talking shit about Z32's, etc etc because they're the type of people who can't enjoy a car without the constant affirmation and reinforcement that it's better than everyone else'. Or that they're the ones that got it exactly right, and everyone who spent less is a broke piece of shit and everyone who spent more is an idiot.
AKA they're assholes and they've been assholes for a long fuckin' time so don't let them shit on your day.

Deferring to the great Raylan Givens:

I'd also take a moment to consider that you're reacting to that minority population of assholes by making some wildly inaccurate assumptions that might be considered 'assholeish'.

Most OG LHD MK4 guys are chill as hell. Yes, we tend to be older and established professionals now, with families and other obligations that might limit our available time to enjoy our cars or build them as we'd like to. I've got all of those things going on myself.
That doesn't mean I'll talk down to RHD guys or think they're stupid/inferior/my car is better/whatever. So please don't make the same sweeping assumption against all of us LHD guys. That's an asshole's bigotry no different than the RHD hate you're bitching about.

Similarly, being an OG MK3 guy, and I honestly consider myself a MK3 guy at heart..... saying that MK3 guys won't even buy their own drinks... that's pretty deep into 'not cool bro' territory even if you meant it as a joke.

Many MK3 dudes have a pretty limited budget. A SURPRISING number of them do not. Dry sump JZ's, sequential transmissions, DCT conversions, all that stuff is in MK3's too. Most of those owners are so sick of MK4 haterade over the past 20+ years that they keep it low key. Or they're old enough that they don't give a shit about social media, or both.

But among MK3 guys,I've known dudes (plural) who've struggled to finish buying parts for their build for years, yet offered me parts they could sell, FOR FREE, just because I needed them.
Supra broke down suddenly? MK3 guys are often the sort that'll drop what they're doing to show up with a truck and a tow strap or coolant and help you out even if you haven't hung out in 6 months. There's a brotherhood and camaraderie with MK3 guys of a level that's very, very rare and hard to find anywhere else with any other car, especially MK4's. When you do, it's a very selective clique and it isn't a 'Hey I know you're another MK3 dude and you live on my side of town, so I'm down AF to help you'.
And finally, MK3 dudes are usually the sort that'd have $37 left in their checking account and still insist on paying for their $21 share of a tab.
So really, of all the Supra guys to talk smack about, MK3 guys aren't the ones, even in jest.

I apologize for the poll, I was trying to take it down.

Fixed it! 🍺

 

[blacksupra94]

I know what you're saying - LHD's tend to be more expensive. But really it's the same as it ever was. Before the 25 year threshold and especially before GTE swaps were 100% sorted out, it used to be cheap LHD NA's that dudes would put wheels on and cruise around and talk about going NA-T or GTE swapping. Now the RHD NA's are the cheap ones for dudes to leave JDM tyte or put wheels on and talk about GTE swapping. Nothing new under the sun, steering wheel's just on the other side.

That said, I've noticed that LHD owners who talk shit about RHD Supras are almost always talking shit from their boring ass pointless daily driver. Meaning they hardly ever drive their LHD Supra anyway. Especially the low-mile stock or near stock LHD Supras, maybe 1 in 10 of those are owned by an actual enthusiast, the rest are just overfunded pinky-up dick-sucks that saw the Barrett-Jackson numbers and wanted to catch the 'investment' elevator on the way up, and have a new car to discuss owning with other boring collectors at the next pinky-up odometer-reading circle jerk.
In all honesty most of those LHD cars might as well not exist. It's not like you'll ever see one at a local meet, or driving on a nice day, or actually being enjoyed as a car.

Meanwhile, most RHD Supra owners drive the shit out of their cars, even if it's a near stock NA auto. I like that.

Looking down on people driving RHD Supras vs having a justified preference of which you'd like to buy are definitely two different things and I hope you aren't categorizing me into the elitist crowd. Shoot, I did a photo session with a RHD car last month lol. Having an Mk5 also, those get bullied by mk3/4 owners more than the LHD RHD situation. I noticed the mk3 owners go the hardest

 

[Mrsadat]

Wow it’s a great thing to see how passionate the community is when it comes to the LEGENDARY TOYOTA SUPRA, I created this post because I myself love the ICONIC BRAND, but I was decisive on which to go after the RHD or the LHD. We all know that here in the USA the prices are 🚀 for the LHD but you can find or even bring a RHD into the states and hopefully save some 💰. Im still shopping and looking for my dream car. Whether it’s a RHD or LHD it’s still a SUPRA. I truly appreciate all the informative information that’s being shared with the community.

 

[franzcars]

@franzcars curious as to why you went with an auto and not a manual? the ONLY way I would buy a MKIV auto is if it was so cheap that it was worth it to do a manual conversion.

That was the plan. Goal for the car was to make ~700-800 reliabily, so I didnt want to chance it with a R154 car, the V160's would make me scared to beat on the car, so bought it as an auto and swapped it to a T56 Magnum F after ~6 months, and used the money saved vs buying a V160 car to buy the single and Haltech

 

[JDMSteven]

@franzcars smart move, I wouldn't want a V160 either but I'm going to do a Driftmotion R154 with upgraded internals. I'm not looking for big HP, I'll be happy with 500-550. I have a single turbo GTE VVTI that I got with the intention of swapping into my 5 speed IS300 but now destined for my Supra.

 

[CasperMK2]

I have converted my Supra to a center cockpit like the McLaren F1. Best of both worlds! Especially with my triple turbo setup I will smoke LHD and RHD Supras, because those only had twins.

@liquidpopcorn drove in my car and knows this post is the truth and nothing but the truth.

 

[blueteamno]

Thinking about converting mine to both hand drive, give it the driving instructor treatment. I'll sit on the left side when I'm going through the Taco Bell drive-through or there are other Supra snobs around, then I'll sit on the right side to impress people on /r/jdm or when I need to drop something in someone's mailbox.

 

[Wreckless]

Looking down on people driving RHD Supras vs having a justified preference of which you'd like to buy are definitely two different things and I hope you aren't categorizing me into the elitist crowd. Shoot, I did a photo session with a RHD car last month lol. Having an Mk5 also, those get bullied by mk3/4 owners more than the LHD RHD situation. I noticed the mk3 owners go the hardest

Agreed - there's a huge difference between having a preference and talking trash/being an asshole/etc. I figured that was self evident from what I was saying, apologies if my sleep-deprived rant wasn't clear.

I prefer LHD myself just because of my driving 'muscle memory'. If I ever have an RHD car for some time and get used to it, I might change my mind. But that's in no way the sort of thing I'm talking about.

If you bought a LHD Supra and enjoy it, that's great!
It's the folks that bought a LHD Supra and spend their time on social media talking smack about RHD's, or laugh reacting to anyone selling one for more than $20k, etc - that's the problem.

As to the MK5, that's a really complicated one. Like many other OG Supra owners, the whole car feels like Toyota deliberately did it as a dismissive, hateful betrayal of our loyalty and pride in Toyota's golden era work. Having worked on a fair number of N54/N55/B58 BMW's, I have a pretty passionate dislike for them that is well founded in how failure prone, overpriced, and overcomplicated they are. It's every bit the very opposite of what it's like to work on a Toyota.
Where Toyota cares about the details and robust designs to the very small details, BMW seems to take the exact opposite approach, and carefully designs components to be as cheap and as weak and as failure prone as possible whilst still making it to the end of warranty coverage.
Now, Toyota did put some effort into going through BMW's parts bin and culling out a lot of those problematic parts and cheap shit versions of things before they slapped a Supra badge on it. So saying it's purely a BMW product isn't 100% accurate. It's all BMW parts, built on a BMW leased Magna-Steyr production line in Austria, but Toyota's team threw out a lot of the major problematic pieces before they could end up on a Supra. So that's good. It's best described, IMHO, as a Toyota-curated BMW product.

That doesn't save them from all the BMW issues, though, especially in regards to the DME and body electronics, and there was that really bad batch of engines in that range of '21 models. I know personally of three lemon law buybacks of '21 model Supras specifically from that issue alone. In all three cases, a Toyota dealership replaced the engine, and they could never get the DME or electronics to act right ever again. One particularly egregious case had the owner getting dragged along for ~6 months going back and forth with various DME reflashes and changes trying to fix his car.

So there's a real grey area on dealership support, parts support, and past-warranty support for the MK5's and I can't help but suspect that MK5's will start dying quickly as repair costs become instantly prohibitive when they're 5-7 years old and outside of warranty coverage, much like other BMW products.

So ultimately, I'm astonished and frankly pissed off that Toyota was so short sighted to think that a BMW could replace a Supra - if it could have, everyone would have sold their MK4's for those BMW's ages ago.

But then I put myself in the shoes of a guy that wants to buy a new sports car in 2020-2022ish, etc, and look out at what's available. The Zupra is a real contender in that regard because everything else is kind of long in tooth and ho-hum. Especially now that '23 models are shipping with a 6MT (finally!)
I don't hate someone for buying a MK5, but it's hard to have a positive reaction to those cars because of how Toyota did the OG Supra community in making it. Toyota execs courted quite a few of OG Supra elite, including our own @KenHenderson and all of the messaging from our crew was loud and clear - Toyota product, Toyota engine, 6MT trans, tuning support. I6 would be great but not required. 6MT trans. Tuning support. Over and over again. Lots of back and forth happened discussing GR series V6's and UR series V8's as a basis for a new Supra engine. Personally, I'm willing to bet the V35A twin turbo V6 found in the new Tundras initially started life as a blueprint for the new Supra engine.

But ultimately ALL of that was completely and utterly ignored. So either those Toyota execs were courting us in bad faith, having already made the decision for a BMW product but hoping to do a 'temperature check' against us gaijin enthusiasts for it, or they vindictively did the OPPOSITE of what we wanted for.... whatever reason.
The fact that Toyota has ~200+ Billion in development capital means every cheerleader saying that developing an all-Toyota MK5 wasn't possible or was too expensive is 100% delusional and bullshitting themselves.
If Toyota simply wanted to dismissively and cheaply get the 'Supra monkey' off their backs, and wanted to do it in the cheapest possible way that required the least effort or care or pride on their part... what would they have done different? IMHO, Nothing.

So I'm betting it wasn't a matter of deliberate hatred for old MK4 guys or older Supra owners - it was a matter of being lazy cheapasses with no pride that simply wanted the world to STFU about the Supra. They saw the timing against the current market was ideal because there was minimal competition in the sports car arena, so even a lukewarm half-ass badge-engineered attempt would be cheered on by the press, plus they got a SWEET deal with BMW on other tech-sharing that probably put them in the black for the whole thing overall. Win-win-win by corporate bean counter upper management standards that dictate their colorless, soulless, and pointless lives.

Any way you cut the cake, it's a loaf of shit to older Supra guys, so it's hard to separate the emotional reaction from the MK5's genesis and development from seeing one on the street. That, unfortunately, carries over to the owners of MK5's.
I don't hate anyone for buying a new sports car and trying to have some fun with their hard earned money.
I don't hate the fact that a profitable and successful MK5 does wonders for enhancing the chances of a proper MK6.
I don't even hate the MK5 itself as a car. Yes, it took me a long time to separate my feelings about how Toyota did us as a community, and how I felt about the car itself. It is a cool car and a welcome addition to the market right now. It just doesn't deserve its badging, is all.

But I sure as hell hate that car's proverbial 'parents', and how it came to exist.




Edit - typo fixes

 

[Wreckless]

Thinking about converting mine to both hand drive, give it the driving instructor treatment. I'll sit on the left side when I'm going through the Taco Bell drive-through or there are other Supra snobs around, then I'll sit on the right side to impress people on /r/jdm or when I need to drop something in someone's mailbox.

I'm thinking about a zero-hand drive conversion using a hacked Tesla autopilot. Build a custom dash that's passenger side features on both. I'll hack an Alexa and make it respond to 'Supra' and I'll give it voice commands.

'Supra, take me to the car meet at 15th and Fuckoff'
(angry robotic voice) I WILL TAKE THEM TO GAPPLEBEES

Also the auto pilot will engage 'Mexico Mode' if anyone honks three times next to you.
Microphones and bluetooth+wifi auto-hacking systems will be outside so anyone that yells 'DO A BURNOUT' will be rewarded with a burnout and a Venmo, Cashapp or Zelle debt paid to my account for $150. Same thing for kids screaming for pops and bangs at the rev limiter, except that'll be $250 because those exhaust valves and turbine wheels ain't cheap.

Vanity plate will be ROADHED. Might install some heated/cooled seats from a late model Lexus too.

 

[BossSupra]

Nothing wrong/right or inherently better/worse with either rhd or lhd if you’re going to enjoy them the same, but from what I’ve seen is since rhd is the more affordable car it’s the one that ends up being enjoyed more, modded etc., so if a lhd Supra will end up sitting because of its price, rarity etc. then go rhd all day, they are the better value for sure at least as there’s more of them around, I think the ratio is 3rhd:1lhd, and definitely the way to go if you prefer a fixed/non sport top.

 

[BoostedMH]

My 10 cents is if you can afford it and want it? get it. Myself i own a rhd mk4 supra. For as much money as i invested in it i could have purchased a lhd lol. I was stationed overseas and it was stock when i purchased it before prices creeped up on them. I got to enjoy a bone stock supra and then build it the way i want it to be. When i visited car meets with my car people didn't care if it was RHD or LHD they just liked and appreciated it cause it was a Supra. It still got attention lol with that famous saying lol "is that a supra". Now back in the US and on social media it seem's SOME lhd owners do seem snobbish lol. Like o you own a rhd your inferior to me. I guessed you got teased by Lambo, Ferrari, Porsche, or other high luxury car owners. Now you see that some supra's sold for 6 figures you feel your supra may sell for that much so now you feel like your part of that club but then they look at you and say bro you drive a Toyota your still not one of us lol. Not every Supra will gain 6 figures or worth 6 figures. Buy what you want rhd or lhd and enjoy it. Buying to enjoy it? or Buying for a collection item?

 

[liquidpopcorn]

@Wreckless, I meant to convene exactly what you made way clearer than I did about mk3 guys, in stark contrast to my personal expefience with lhd bro's. But I guess european Lhd guys are way snobbier than the US ones.

@CasperMK2 Damn straight brother, that center drive f1 dash with dual t56's on either hand is a darn straight ripper! And I am here to testify all for it!

 

[Wreckless]

@Wreckless, I meant to convene exactly what you made way clearer than I did about mk3 guys, in stark contrast to my personal expefience with lhd bro's. But I guess european Lhd guys are way snobbier than the US ones.

@CasperMK2 Damn straight brother, that center drive f1 dash with dual t56's on either hand is a darn straight ripper! And I am here to testify all for it!

We've got our snobs over here, that's absolutely certain.

I guess I just hesitate to make sweeping generalizations like 'European LHD guys are snobby' when I've corresponded good dozens of LHD Supra owners in Europe, and even met and had beers with some of them at Supras in Vegas, and they're all straight-up awesome people.

What sucks is it only takes a couple or three bad experiences to make a generalization, and we assume that stereotype/generalization is true all the time. Some idiot with a beat up RHD Supra does burnouts on public roads and gets a nice car meet cancelled, and LHD guys hate the RHD guys. Then the LHD guys give a different RHD guy a hard time, when that dude had nothing to do with that and wouldn't do those things, and now that dude hates LHD guys. So on and so forth.

I try to give assholes full individual credit for being an asshole I treat most of their other variables like the car they drive, the music they listen to, the sports they follow, etc as coincidences that are unrelated to that dude waking up that day and deciding to be a pointless insufferable asshole.

 

[T6Rocket]

Thinking about converting mine to both hand drive, give it the driving instructor treatment. I'll sit on the left side when I'm going through the Taco Bell drive-through or there are other Supra snobs around, then I'll sit on the right side to impress people on /r/jdm or when I need to drop something in someone's mailbox.

This is the best post of the thread. And is as serious of a post as this nonsensical thread has deserved all along.

Al

 

[2cars=4Turbos]

as some one that’s owned every variant of Supra LHD Hardtop, RHD Hardtop , LHD Aero , RHD Aero, hell even one EU spec .
Do what you can afford and what makes life easier for you .
When I had my divorce I had both rhd and LHD in the garage . My RHD actually a cleaner and more desireable car (factory RSP) but i choose the LHD because not because one is better , but because of where I’m living and what will be easier for me day to day.

parts wise : rhd is a little better IMO…. If you laid out two project cars missing a bunch of parts 9/10 times the rhd car is going to be easier to get stuff for . I spent 6 months sourcing a LHD specific interior panel once .
driving : I recommend driving a rhd car before you make a 40-70k purchase . It’s not for everyone but for the majority of people it’s easy to get used to.
good luck!