Leave it to someone who follows tech to fall in love with the instrument cluster of a sporty car. Fast acceleration, smooth handling — the 2021 Toyota GR Supra has it all.
Yes, the driving mechanics are sublime. Toyota made a small and sporty car that is lightning quick, a pure thrill ride especially if you love cornering, curves, and fast starts.
Yet, I couldn’t help but notice the instrument cluster above the steering column. It’s 8.8-inches of brilliance, in full-color glory, sitting right in front of you.
First, about the tachometer. It’s bright and clear, like something you’d find in a Lexus (no surprise there).
I enjoyed driving the Supra more than any of the tests this year, and I liked watching the speedometer just as much. It seems like an excellent match for the superior handling. The center display shows your current gear as well, plus suggested gear.
Toyota shows you the traction control setting as well and whether it is enabled.
You can quickly glance at this display to see speed and gear, which helps with track driving or your morning commute.
I tested the Supra in a variety of conditions on country roads in my area, always staying within the speed limit but accelerating quickly from a starting position, using the paddle shifters to run through the gears quickly, and always keeping an eye on the display.
On the left and right, you can customize what you see. For example, the default setting is to see temp on the right and fuel level on the left, but you can easily show other information in those spots such as navigation with turn-by-turn directions and the current audio playing.
Toyota calls it a “gauge pot” — I found it to be useful as a way to aid in my driving in everyday conditions, to watch my speed and which gear I was in. I was a little surprised to discover that the Supra didn’t have a manual transmission, but then again you can drive it like it has one if you use the paddle shifters. It was fun to pretend it was the original Supra.
For digital read-outs to be effective, they need to be clear, easy to see in front of you, and easy to customize. The Supra has all of those attributes. In one straight-away test passing someone on a two-lane highway, I rocketed forward and just barely edged up to the max speed limit.
It feels like a jackrabbit, to be honest. The Supra is lighter than a muscle car and certainly lighter than my normal car (a BMW 3) so it propels forward with a pronounced momentum. I loved every minute of the test; someday, I plan to spring for one myself.
