The year was 2013 when Toyota took the wraps off the FT-86 Open at the Geneva Motor Show. Despite rumors claiming it would go into production, the convertible version of Toyota’s baby sports car never hit the assembly line. Fast forward to 2020, its bigger brother is losing its fixed roof as well, but not for the Swiss auto show as the GR Supra Sport Top is being developed for SEMA.
It’s not a full-on convertible like the aforementioned FT-86 Open as the Supra’s rear pillar and glass remain in place. This is more along the lines of a targa-topped variant of the sports car as the first teaser video showed Toyota working on a removable top for its Gazoo Racing-branded A90. As it turns out, it wasn’t easy chopping off the top, but they eventually gave the Supra unlimited headroom by removing the steel roof.
It’s too early to say whether Toyota has any plans to sell a convertible Supra. Of course, there’s always the BMW Z4 roadster upon which the car is based, complete with an electrically retractable roof that goes up or down in 10 seconds. We wouldn’t hold our breath for a Supra with a removable top since it would cannibalize sales of its German cousin.
That being said, a report from June 2019 originating from the Japanese magazine Best Car Web cited Toyota Supra Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada who admitted the possibility of an open-air Supra. He specifically said it would have a targa configuration rather than a conventional fabric top like the BMW Z4, but we’ll just have to wait and see about that.
Perhaps Toyota is waiting to see what sort of feedback the GR Supra Sport Top concept will receive before pulling the trigger. Even if it won’t be green-lighted for production, we still might get a performance vehicle from the Japanese brand seeing as how the GR Super Sport hypercar with around 1,000 horsepower has been previewed with a similar roof setup.