Tommy Mica and Kase van Rees of The Fast Lane recently pitted a nearly stock fourth-gen Supra against Toyota's new GR Corolla with the automatic transmission. Although these vehicles couldn't be more different under the skin, both clocked bests of 15-odd seconds in the quarter mile at a mile above sea level.
The boyos raced from a standstill twice, with Tommy recording 16.39 seconds at 96 miles per hour (154 kilometers per hour) in the first run and 15.83 seconds at the very same 96 miles per hour in the second race. Not bad for a Mk4 Supra Turbo with the slushy automatic, especially one that is close to factory spec.
Said 1997 model is a 15th Anniversary Edition with a cat-back exhaust. Approximately 1,379 were sold in the United States. Originally, the 3.0-liter six developed a very respectable 320 horsepower and 315 pound-feet (427 Newton-meters) of torque. Unfortunately, be it automatic or the manual shifting mode, its A340E automatic transmission leaves much to be desired in a straight-line showdown.
From a 30-mph roll, however, the 1997 Supra managed to barely pip the all-wheel-drive GR Corolla in the quarter mile. Turning our attention back to the drag races, Kase first ran 16.04 seconds at 94.4 miles per hour (151.9 kilometers per hour), followed by 15.55 seconds at – once again – the very same 94.4 miles per hour as before. In other words, the much newer hatchback was 0.28 seconds quicker in the quarter than the Mk4 Supra, which is nothing at this elevation (TFL is based in Colorado) and on an unprepped surface.
The quarter-mile times recorded by the Solo DL performance loggers do not subtract the first foot of rollout. In addition to GR-FOUR all-wheel drive and a much fancier auto with four additional forward ratios over the A340E, the 2025 Toyota GR Corolla rocks far newer turbocharging and fuel injection technologies.
Photo: TFLclassics on YouTube
Despite packing a 1.6-liter turbo I3, the GR Corolla is adequately powerful and torquey, with Toyota quoting 300 horses and 295 pound-feet (400 Newton-meters) of twist. Maximum output is delivered at 6,500 and 3,250 revolutions per minute, respectively.
The 1997 Supra with the 2JZ-GTE, on the other hand, is a sequential twin-turbo affair that peaks at 5,600 revolutions per minute and 4,000 revolutions per minute. Today, the GR Supra follows in the footsteps of its highly desirable predecessor with a six-cylinder lump of the inline variety. But as opposed to the Mk4, the GR Supra relies on BMW muscle.
Both automakers made it clear that neither the GR Supra nor Z4 would've happened without said collaboration, for developing each model independently would have been too cost-prohibitive. Toyota and BMW engineers went their separate ways early in the development process, which is why the open-top Z4 feels so different from the coupe-only GR Supra.
As far as the United States market is concerned, the GR Corolla and GR Supra are split by the boxer-engined GR 86. Although there are no plans to bring the GR Yaris to North America, that's a pretty fine lineup of sporty cars in this SUV-dominated market.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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