The cockpit of our Supra was well-organized, attractive and cozy without feeling too claustrophobic. There's more elbow room here than in, say, an RX-7, although the Supra conveys the same kind of race-car ambiance - purposeful comfort, in contrast to the kind of near-opulence of the previous generation.
Most controls are well-marked and easy to find after a brief orientation. A pair of typical Toyota stalks combine several secondary control functions such as lights and wipers. Power-window switches and outside-mirror controls are set into the door panel and are easy to reach.
The climate controls are simple to figure out and easy to adjust while the car is moving, but the audio-control push buttons in our test car were on the small side and difficult to manipulate, and the shift lever sits just a trifle high in the center console.
We were a little surprised by the absence of cupholders - sports-car drivers drink coffee just like everyone else, after all - and the coin trays tucked beneath the center console lid aren't particularly useful.
We were also a little taken aback by the bucket seats. They were comfortable and had a wide range of adjustability, but we expected a little more in the way of side bolstering in a car with such formidable cornering capability.
The rear seat, however, was no surprise at all. Like all 2+2 coupes, getting an extra passenger into this space requires agility on the part of the person climbing into the rear, plus lots of cooperation from the front-seat passenger. Getting two passengers into the rear of a Supra comes close to defying several laws of physics.
Our only other observation concerning the interior has to do with driver sight lines, which are slightly obstructed in the rear quarters. However, the side mirrors are good-sized and do a fine job of compensating for those small blind spots. The view directly to the rear in our wingless test car was only average. (Toyota claims that the turbo's optional spoiler doesn't obstruct vision to the rear, an opinion we don't quite share.) Forward vision over the sloping hood is good, al-though it's somewhat hard to tell just where the front of the car ends.
For all its weight loss, the Supra is still a big car, which makes its agility that much more remarkable. Even at racing speeds, the Supra displays very little body roll when hurled into corners, and it sticks to the road like barnacles on a ship.
The Supra's extra-wide wheels reduce tire sidewall flex, which lends an exception-ally precise response to the Car's all-around handling. And big tires and big brakes add up to unusually strong stopping power. In this area, the Supra's performance may very well be the best in its class.
We were also impressed by the performance of our test Car's limited slip differential, which helped keep the rear wheels driving smoothly even in hard cornering and emergency avoidance maneuvers.
What this adds up to is a driving experience That's at least as satisfying as its major competitors - provided you're on dry roads. On slippery surfaces, the Supra's substantial power, rear-wheel drive and fat tires - designed for maximum performance on smooth, dry roads - can make for tricky driving.
Considering its finely honed handling, our test car's ride quality was surprisingly comfortable. It was fairly compliant over reasonably well-maintained roads, although tar strips and pavement ripples provide little reminders of the steel in its sinews. On rougher surfaces, the ride tended toward choppy, and it was choppier still in the Turbo, which has stiffer suspension tuning. In fact, this transmitted a fair amount of road noise to the supra's interior, although we never found this to be really objectionable.