After years of waiting, the fifth-generation Supra is finally upon us. It debuted a little over two weeks ago at NAIAS in Detroit and it looks like Toyota Racing Development is eager to show how it can amplify the sports coupe. Come February 9 and we’ll get to see a TRD-branded concept of the new Supra at the Osaka Automesse held in the Kansai region in Japan. If you haven’t heard of this annual auto show before, it’s like the JDM equivalent of SEMA and 2019 will represent the 23rd edition of the event.

Known by its full name as the Toyota GR Supra Performance Line Concept TRD, the showcar will give us a taste of things to come as far as the many ways Supra owners will be able to upgrade their cars with TRD goodies. The concept’s reveal comes as a natural follow-up to a statement made in Detroit by Andrew Coetzee, Group Vice President - Product Planning & Strategy at Toyota Motor North America. In an interview with Motor Trend, he revealed the plan is to offer a variety of warranty-backed TRD items. In addition, there might be a Supra TRD special edition sooner or later in the model’s life cycle.

Complementing the TRD upgrades will be additional items carrying the GRMN (Gazoo Razing Meisters of Nürburgring) badging. Speaking of which, Toyota has already confirmed plans for a high-performance Supra GRMN, so the model’s future looks bright for enthusiasts. That being said, Coetzee did admit during the same interview the company has “rather modest volume expectations” given the current weak demand for sports cars.

Details about the forthcoming Supra Performance Line Concept TRD are not available at this point, but we’ll probably see some changes to the body and minor hardware tweaks for the suspension and brakes. We wouldn’t hold our breath for a power boost over the standard 335 horsepower and 365 lb-ft (495 Nm) of torque, though.

Toyota Racing Development adds wings ‘n’ things to A90 Supra

Just as it promised last week, Toyota Racing Development has had its way with the brand-new Supra.

Unveiled with surprisingly little fanfare at Japan’s ‘Osaka Auto Messe’, the ‘Performance Line Concept’ gives us an idea what kind of parts TRD will eventually offer for the new BMW-based coupe. It’s wearing skirts and spoilers made from carbon fibre, plus something called a ‘door garnish’. Sounds delicious.

All these things are claimed to improve aerodynamics, while lighter-weight 19in alloy wheels “tell quality to the road surface without excessive vehicle performance”, in Toyota’s Google Translated Japanese words. We think this means they’re better.

TRD doesn’t say whether it’s done anything to the Supra’s innards. It will eventually, no doubt, but it looks as though this concept was done purely to show off imminent aesthetic mods.

As a reminder – the Supra gets a 3.0-litre straight-six from BMW that gives 340bhp/369lb ft and a 4.3sec 0-62mph time. It will also be available with 2.0-litre turbo fours with either 197bhp/236lb ft or 258bhp/295lb ft, but they haven’t been confirmed for Europe.

After a very long absence and over a decade of anticipation, the new Toyota Supra finally entered the scene last month at the Detroit Auto Show. Since then, there’s been more than a few people criticize the Supra’s engine. It’s not bad by any stretch – the 335-horsepower turbocharged inline-six fits perfectly with the Supra’s I6 pedigree, including the infamous 2JZ mill that helped the previous-gen model ascent to legendary status. Rather, the criticism stems from the fact that the new engine isn’t a product of Toyota, but BMW. To be blunt, the German partnership for the Supra’s powertrain has Toyota purists furious.

As such, we knew a 2JZ-swapped Supra was inevitable but we didn’t expect to see a dedicated, full-on swap kit appear so soon. Never the less, California-based CX Racing dropped a rendered photo on its Facebook page recently, showing a new Supra with an old 2JZ under the hood and a promise that a complete kit would be coming soon for pre-order. A quick check of CX Racing’s homepage doesn’t reveal any additional information, but we can see that the company offers all kinds of parts, upgrades, and engine swap components for a variety of vehicles.

Curiously, the comments section on that post isn’t filled with glory and praise. Many people point out that the Bimmer-sourced mill in the fifth-gen Supra – which is shared with the BMW Z4 – is a capable engine in its own right. Underneath the Z4’s hood the 3.0-liter engine is tuned to make 382 hp, so presumably more power for the Supra is easy to unlock. The big question is whether or not the engine can hold up to insane levels of boost that made the 2JZ such a popular engine for tuners.

In the meantime, Toyota says the new car with 335 hp will sprint to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, and we suspect that will be fast enough for most new Supra owners – for a little while at least. And for those who absolutely demand a Supra with a storied Toyota mill under the hood, it appears your wishes for a plug-and-play swap kit have already been granted.