So how does the Supra’s scoreboard compare to those of the new players that came and went during the Car of the Future era? And what has made the difference?
Toyota has ticked off key on-track milestones in rapid fire, taking just five races to score its first podium and nine to clinch a pole position and race win.
All three were achieved by Walkinshaw TWG Racing and its young Kiwi star Ryan Wood, who has largely led the way for the marque.
Of the Nissan Altima (Kelly Racing), Mercedes-AMG E63 (Erebus Motorsport) and Volvo S60 (Garry Rogers Motorsport) entries under COTF, only the latter’s statistics come close.
Another emerging Kiwi star, Scott McLaughlin, put the Swedish brand on the podium just two races into its debut 2014 season, doing so with his infamous “give it some jandal” effort in Adelaide.
It took McLaughlin nine races to score Volvo’s first pole and 14 to chalk up a championship race win (or seven races if you include a non-championship triumph at Albert Park).
The Toyota and Volvo numbers are in huge contrast to that of 2013 debutants Nissan and Mercedes, which faced far longer waits for their breakthroughs.
For both, a first victory was also their first podium – Nissan in its 25th race through James Moffat and Mercedes with Lee Holdsworth in the E63’s 44th race.
It took Nissan 61 attempts to score pole for a championship race, while Mercedes put its only pole on the board ahead of start 72.
The most startling statistic, though, is the fact Toyota rocketed to three race wins in just 15 starts. It took Volvo 33 races to achieve that feat and Nissan a whopping 178.
Nissan’s third win (achieved in 2018, just days after news the program was to end) was also the last of its seven-year stint, while Mercedes didn’t get beyond two wins.
Those numbers are the most telling of the COTF manufacturer story.
The Kelly Nissan and Erebus Mercedes hit the track behind the eight-ball at the start of a new ruleset and never became consistent winners.
Arriving a year later, the GRM Volvo leapt out of the blocks and then faced stricter Supercars processes designed to pull it back.
Fast-forward to today and the landscape Toyota has faced is very different.
Supercars’ parity efforts continue to be criticised but are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were at the start of the Gen3 era in 2023, let alone 2013.
The fact that the Gen3 platform’s control components have left the engine and bodywork as the only mechanical differences between cars is meanwhile a double-edged sword.
It’s greatly reduced the performance gaps between teams but also placed a much bigger spotlight on any minute parity discrepancies.
Worth noting too is that Toyota broke the mould by entering with two teams, including a homologation team in Walkinshaw which won the drivers’ championship last season.
Kelly Racing and Erebus (then Stone Brothers) had not won a race in the year before introducing Nissan and Mercedes, while GRM won just twice in its final pre-Volvo season.
Whether the lack of Nissan and Mercedes success was down to Supercars not ensuring technical parity or to the sporting performance of the teams remains up for debate.
Regardless, Supercars’ motorsport boss Tim Edwards said various factors add up to why the Toyota has been instantly competitive.
“People say ‘new manufacturers came in the past and they were off the pace’, but we’re not in that era now,” Edwards told Speedcafe at Symmons Plains.
“Because we’ve been to the Windshear wind tunnel and all that sort of stuff, you’ve given them similar downforce and drag, you’ve given them a similar output of the engine.
“They already understood the suspension. That’s what they had in their car last year. So why wouldn’t they be performing much like they did last year?”
Toyota project architect Neil Crompton admits to being more than a bit relieved as to the Supra’s early success and is among those spruiking it as a triumph for the category.
“It confirms the system works,” Crompton told Fox Sports at Symmons Plains.
“It’s designed to provide an opportunity to succeed. You can’t guarantee success but you can provide the opportunity for it.
“Toyota has built an engine and a shape that fits inside those guidelines, so in all logic you should be able to do it.”
Naturally, Toyota’s early success is also drawing concern from rival manufacturers and teams.
That’s in part due to the results coming amid an acknowledged “hole” in the power delivery of the Toyota engine that cannot be fixed with mapping tweaks.
Symmons Plains is essentially a power circuit and perhaps a surprising location for the marque to chalk up a pair of poles and wins.
The close nature of the category was underlined by the fact Toyota’s performance relative to the field took a sharp U-turn from Saturday to Sunday.
“The known hole that they’ve got, which everybody’s aware of, is actually not in an area that really hurts you too much at this track,” cautioned Edwards in Tasmania.
“Different tracks, you’re in different RPM ranges, so it can help or hurt you. This one, it’s obviously not an area where they’re in that particular range very much.”
Toyota and Walkinshaw have said that addressing the power deficit is on the back burner while they work on a reliability fix following multiple failures early in the campaign.
“It’s not performance,” insisted Crompton of the development path.
“It’s not like we’re going to bolt on 50 horsepower and do wheel stands on the back straight. That’s not going to happen.
“What we need to make sure is that the engine is reliable and that we get the fuel efficiency right with the car.
“It’s very, very early days at the moment. I don’t expect an easy road ahead.”
Crompton said the focus for both Walkinshaw and Brad Jones Racing is on attention to detail, noting that success in the modern era of Supercars is “the sum of 10,000 parts”.
“What’s happened in the last five, 10, 15 years is that the window has continued to narrow,” he said.
“You can no longer out-widget everybody. You can no longer build front upright ‘Mk 27’ and go and disappear down the road.
“What you have to do is focus on the really small detail and try and add the sum together. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
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