Back in January, a saga of the weird kind unfolded regarding the 'world record' Toyota Supra.
With faultless red paintwork, a manual transmission, and just over 11,000km on the clock, the minty-fresh Japanese classic was sold at Bring a Trailer auction for US$121,000 — or $180,000 in New Zealand currency. This was the world record sales price for a stock Toyota Supra at the time.
We all guffawed, and then laughed a bit more when the same car popped up for sale at a Toyota dealership in Chicago with an asking price of almost a million bucks.
Crazy insanity, right? Nobody will ever spend more than that on a bone stock Toyota Supra again, right?
Well ... not exactly.
It turns out that Supra sales at these insane prices aren't quite the flash in the pan we might've thought (or hoped) they would be. Because as of this past weekend, there is a new record holder in the Supra sales stakes.
This time it's this black example; a 1994 twin-turbo targa-top, with a tan interior, manual gearbox, and just 11,000 miles (17,702km) on the odometer.
All of this eventually wound up netting the Supra an Amelia Island RM Sotheby's auction sales price of US$173,600 — or NZ$254,165. A quarter of a million bucks, for a Japanese coupe readily available here for less than the price of a new Kia Picanto.
For a car that's sat largely undriven for the last 25 years or so, this Supra has had a surprisingly interesting life.
It was sold new in Illinois, and only traveled 6000 miles before getting shipped to Switzerland last year. There it became part of the 'Youngtimers Collection' — a massive group of iconic cars from the '70s, '80s, and '90s that we covered off late last year.
So, despite having more miles on the clock and being sold outside of the '2JZ fever' confines of America, this Supra out-sold the last incredibly-priced record holder.
Maybe, just maybe, these jaw-dropping prices are here to stay.
