Last year, when the SEMA show was still a physical affair in Las Vegas, Toyota showed off a GR Supra Heritage Edition show car that paired upgraded performance with the style (and, in modified form, the actual rear wing) of the legendary fourth-generation Supra. One thing it didn’t have was the MkIV’s available removable targa roof panel. It looks like this year’s version will address that, and Toyota is calling this new GR Supra concept the Sport Top Edition. It’s coming soon—at least, in concept form—on the heels of Toyota’s other SEMA360 Supras, but this video doesn’t leave much to the imagination about what we can expect.
Toyota says this is a companion to last year’s Heritage car. We get a glimpse of what the final vehicle will look like in a rendering on a laptop screen, and the Marty Schwerter, director of operations for the Toyota Motorsports Tech Center and lead for this project, gives us a sense of how it’ll work.
For one, the Sport Top’s removable targa top will be a two-piece affair, made out of composite, and with provision to store it in the Supra’s trunk. Schwerter says the team hopes they can use a remote to electrically pop the targa’s latches for easier removal. And without a permanently-affixed roof panel aiding structural rigidity, some bracing had to be added underneath to maintain rigidity. As for that rear wing you see? The rear wing from the Heritage Edition will make another appearance here—that wing was actually a real MkIV wing, modified to match the MkV’s proportions.
We’ll see the GR Supra Sport Top Edition soon, but, Toyota will roll out more videos documenting the build process, so keep an eye on their YouTube channel for more