History of Toyota Supra

The Toyota Motor Company began life in 1933 as a subsidiary of textile company. After the second World War, Toyota released its first passenger car and in the post war Japanese boom, looked to the United States for sale of its reliable and affordable vehicles. In the 1960s, the company began expanding its product line up with the introduction of higher performance sportier models. By 1967 the comapany had released the 2000GT sports car which went on to become famous in the James Bond movie, "You Only Live Twice". In 1970, Toyota launched the Celica sports car to the Japanese market. Therefore it wasn't a huge suprise in 1978 when Toyota released a follow on its to its 2000GT sports car and called it the "Supra".

The Supra had a long and successful run, first as Toyota's economical "pocket rocket" and later as a full-fledged super-sports car. Between 1979 and 2002, Toyota produced millions of Supras that were sold around the world. By all estimations, the car was a huge success but by 1998 with declining sales, Toyota stopped exporting the model from Japan. And by 2002 it had ceased all production of the Supra. There is hope though that a future version of the Supra is just around the corner. It remains to be seen if Toyota will bring back this iconic machine as a pocket rocket or a super-car.