The latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage centers around a comparison test of sorts. Three non-American “muscle cars” — hailing from Japan, Germany, and Britain — face off. It’s a battle between a 1994 Toyota Supra twin-turbo, 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II, and 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, but it’s not a contest of speed. Rather, it’s a competition to see which one has risen in value the most.
Leno and co-host Donald Osborne go through the a brief history of each car. Leno says, like many of his generation, that he didn’t pay much attention to the Supra when it came out. He still gives it props for a timeless design that looks newer than its three-decade-old age would suggest.
Osborne, who oversees the Audrain Museum in Rhode Island that all three cars belong to, compares it to a Porsche 911 of the era. He’s driven this exact car and says it’s terrific, with the only flaw being a slight rattle from the targa top due to age. Incidentally, the museum also owns one of Smoky Nagata’s Top Secret Supras, a GT300-inspired build powered by a 700-horsepower 3S-GTE.
While all three cars have their merits, the contest is about value. The Supra, currently assessed at about $250,000, was worth $130,000 five years ago, a 92 percent increase. The homologation Benz and rare Canadian-market Aston are worth more, on either side of the half-million dollar mark, but have not appreciated at the same rate (and in the case of the Aston, has depreciated).
Just for fun, let’s say these three cars were put to a race. The Aston had a 0-60 time of 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 170 mph, extraordinary feats in 1978. Both the Mercedes and Toyota had electronic speed limiters that held the car to a 155 mph max. The Benz goes from 0-60 in 7.1 seconds, while the Supra was clocked at 4.6 seconds. It would be a fun race, and if there was money involved we’d bet on the Supra.
