Sometimes, good things happen when carmakers get along. Case in point: Toyota Motor Corp’s new Supra. Made in collaboration with BMW to resurrect a line of cult sports cars the Japanese brand churned out from 1978 to 2002, the coupe shares the same platform as the German carmaker’s Z4. It is a bold new experiment between the companies that, so far, appears to be paying off.

I hopped on a Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo, Japan to Izu to take the new Supra for a spin through the peninsula’s breezy mountains and hot-spring-filled valleys.

The front-engine, rear-wheel-drive Supra comes with the choice of three turbocharged power plants. The two-litre, four-cylinder comes as a base 197-horsepower (hp) and a 258hp tuned version, both of which are not offered in North America. But the one most drivers will probably go for is the three-litre, six-cylinder, pushing out 340hp. Inline-six engines are deeply entwined in the Supra’s DNA, going all the way back to the first iteration four decades ago. Back then, it debuted as essentially an elongated Toyota Celica, with a longer hood and front panels to accommodate the engine.

That aircraft carrier deck of a nose became a key element of the Supra’s appeal over the years. Although the fifth generation is the curviest iteration yet, Toyota has made sure to retain the look. Even without a badge, you know it is a Supra. No wonder then that Toyota engineers looked at BMW’s mostly-hood-with-a-cab-attached Z series coupes and saw similar genes. The Supra is being offered for US$49,990 (RM207,459) to US$55,250 in the US, depending on the model.  Driving the new Supra reminded me of the time I last took the wheel of Toyota’s sports coupe, the third-generation Supra 2.0 GT Twin-Turbo (or the A70 for the Fast and the Furious franchise fans). Like that car, this one is responsive and light.

Weighing 1,420kg to 1,520kg, the new Supra (production model A90 or BMW J29) handled corners well and was always ready to vault itself from a standing stop. It felt utterly controllable, more so than a Nissan GT-R. It reminded me of a BMW Z3. In fact, the Supra’s closest rival might be the Porsche Cayman — just the right engine and size to be fun, without the stress of worrying the car might toss you over a cliff, thanks to a perfect 50:50 weight distribution.

The Supra occupies an interesting niche. While it is affordably priced compared with a Porsche, BMW or Audi, the Toyota sports coupe may also tempt Mazda MX-5 buyers. The latest generation of the Miata, the bestselling two-seater in history, is smaller and offers less power — but it is light and quick with the same weight balance, and costs much less at about US$35,000 to US$49,000. It will be intriguing to see how this plays out in the marketplace.

The eight-speed transmission was smooth, with near-seamless transitions between manual and auto modes on the paddle shifters. The gearbox is part of BMW’s ZF 8HP series, a piece of machinery with shifting that is known for being rapid enough for sports cars and smooth enough for luxury sedans. In a tragic decision for those who will want to take the car drifting, fully manual transmission is not available. Unlike most run-of-the-mill sport modes that do little more than drop down a gear, the Supra’s entire character changed noticeably, from the exhaust tone to the handling. While the inline-six delivered the most growl, the four-cylinder was surprisingly robust.

Getting into the new Supra is not as easy as it used to be. The car is much lower to the ground, and the doors are smaller. In that respect, the car has shed its roots and is much more like a European roadster. The lack of rear seats is another reminder. While the Z4 is a convertible, the Supra is a hardtop. Toyota would not say whether there might a convertible Supra in the future. The body bulges and flows, but it is not an in-your-face forced look like cousin Lexus’ spindle grill. The Supra’s headlights and tail lights retain some of the prior version’s design cues, such as its curvy rump.

Inside is where most drivers will recognise the Japanese automaker’s utilitarian touch. There are no unnecessary frills, and some no-nonsense buttons might have come straight out of a Prius. The displays and dials are in just the right places. The seats are meant to be comfortable, and the steering wheel is a solid, built-by-Toyota piece of equipment without many frills.

Given the cult-like status the Supra enjoys in street-racing circles, and that the last version went out of production in 2002, Toyota took a gamble by teaming up with another automaker to bring it back. It may be easy to view the partnership with BMW as a hedge when electric cars and self-driving vehicles seem to be laying claim to development budgets. Although consumers’ tastes are shifting, the Supra seems determined to bring them along for a ride to a future that is at least a little bit gas-powered. Although Toyota purists and diehard Supra fans could have been turned off by the fact that the car is made at a factory in Europe, that does not seem to be a problem so far. While Toyota has not disclosed how many it plans to make and sell globally in early production, the carmaker has announced that the allotment of 900 vehicles for Europe were all snapped up in pre-orders.

Early buyers do not really seem to care whether the new Supra has the right DNA or not. You should not either. — Bloomberg