Inside track: Testing the new Toyota Supra on a PlayStation

Going from old to new car, what I notice first is a change in urgency – the rate the needle moves around the rev counter. The new power peak of 382bhp, 14% higher than it was, is made between 5800rpm and the 3.0-litre engine’s limiter at 6500rpm, rather than from 5000-6500rpm. Torque is up too, although not by so much: from 365lb ft at 1600-4500rpm to 368lb ft at 1800-5000rpm. So it’s peakier, and I can feel it.

The sound, so far as I can tell, is the same: smooth and zingy (even the actual Supra can sound synthesised), although with a pop on the overrun that I don’t remember on the real car. On bumpier circuits, though, the 2021 Supra feels immediately better controlled than its predecessor. There’s less body roll and tighter control over crests and dips, which makes it easier to place.

That body movements are tighter means there’s less obvious weight transfer, so you can trail the brakes towards a corner without overloading the front tyres so readily and pushing into understeer.

If you don’t push beyond the older car’s front end, the weight shift is more liable to send it into early oversteer. But given the tighter settings, combined with the limited-slip differential’s higher lock-up rate under braking (which promotes stability), the 2021 car is less prone to both initial understeer and falling into early oversteer.

It will still slide – this is a turbocharged rear-wheel-drive car that produces nearly 400bhp, after all – but when it does, it does so with fine control. So it feels more sporting than the original. It’s still less agile than the mid-engined cars in a similar class, but you can drive it into corners on the steering and the brakes more easily, then drive it out on the throttle, rather than it falling into oversteer early and squidging through the middle of a corner as you gas it up before the apex.

What this means for the ride quality is a different matter entirely, obviously. My old kart seat on the floor of my front room gets no more comfortable from one Supra to the other, or indeed to anything else. Ditto the steering, which feels the same to me. Even the best simulator steering set-ups tell you what’s going on differently to how a real car does.

But there’s no question that you can sense the handling changes through Gran Turismo Sport, and they’re worthwhile. Let’s just hope they’re more accurately simulated than the head room.

JUST HOW REALISTIC ARE DRIVING SIMULATORS?

Can you really test a car on a driving simulator? To an extent, yes, because if you couldn’t, car makers and racing teams wouldn’t put such great stock in them. When it costs £15 million to make each real prototype but perhaps £2m for the world’s best simulator, you can see why they appeal.