There’s Finally a Fix for the Toyota Supra’s Most Nagging Suspension Headache
It’s an extensive mod, for sure, but it’s well worth the hassle if you drive it hard.
The new Toyota Supra is somewhat controversial given its tuner legacy and direct relation to the BMW Z4. The general consensus seems to be that it's good, but not great. One of the reasons why, as professional race drivers will tell you, is the rear suspension. It suffers from alignment issues that have finally been fixed thanks to a kit from Polish tuning company Verkline, but this kit is more than some new tie rods. It completely replaces the Supra's rear suspension, save for a few parts, and the reason why is interesting. That is, if you find suspension kinematics interesting.
When compressed, the rear suspension's toe—the neutral "steered" position of the wheel, typically a few degrees in or out—changes drastically, going from positive (the wheels facing out) to negative (the wheels facing in). Under braking, the rear suspension unloads, changing toe rapidly and crossing zero degrees toe in transition, a place you don't want to be in while driving fast. As a result of this toe change, referred to as "bump steer" by some, the rear end has the tendency to squirm around, changing the direction of the car enough that it could possibly lead to a driver overcorrecting and getting into an accident, as explained in the clip below.
To be clear, this isn't recall-worthy; it's a niche thing that people who track these cars worry about. It is still a real concern for them, however. For this reason, Verkline decided to come up with a solution.
While it was at it, the company also lightened and strengthened the rear subframe thanks to a newly fabricated tube construction. Verkline also replaced nearly everything besides the lower control arms, even adding new sway bar end links. Although the result of these modifications has yet to be track-tested on film, a video has been released by Misha Charoudin on YouTube detailing all of the new parts along with a Verkline representative. They also go through the changes that will hopefully turn the fifth-gen Supra into a more capable track tool.
The front suspension also gets replaced in the video, which isn't strictly necessary to correct the issue but is definitely good to do as a replacement over stock components that were engineered for a certain price and use case. The new front suspension parts are also a part of Verkline's kit, so it makes sense to do it anyway. These parts aren't quite ready for sale to the public; however, Verkline's website has a series of other subframes you can browse through in the meantime. Definitely a great site if subframe swaps are a keen interest of yours.
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