As Toyota has yet to set an official lap time around the Nurburgring with the new Supra, it's up to third parties to see how the sports car compares to the competition. German car magazine Sport Auto is in the perfect position to do so, and has its own racing driver on staff to keep things consistent.
We tend to trust these times more than manufacturers as journalists aren't likely to use non-stock parts or tuning to improve the times. In this case, Sport Auto sent Christian Gebhardt out in a 2020 Toyota GR Supra, and he came home with a time of 7 minutes and 52.17 seconds.
While the lap time isn't a jaw-dropper, it's still impressive considering the Nurburgring has incredibly long straight sections and the Supra only packs 335 horsepower under the hood. It becomes even more impressive when you consider that Gebhardt set an almost identical time in a BMW M2 Competition late in 2018. It's also a quicker time than the 7 minute and 55 second time set with the Supra's BMW Z4 sibling.
While the time is 12 seconds slower than the time estimated by the Supra's chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada, it does suggest the future is bright for the Supra.
The 7 minutes and 52.17 second time is set in a stock model and Toyota has stated that it plans to bring different versions to market over time. Less weight, more hardcore suspension, and stickier tires would undoubtedly lead to faster times, as would more power. BMW isn't keen on letting its M version of the B58 engine, the S58, with 503 horsepower go into a Toyota badged car, but that won't stop people from beefing up the stock engine or even swapping in the S58. There is, however, an M version of the Supra related BMW Z4 in the works, which could see the start of some very healthy competition between the platform partners.