Mecum will sell a remarkably fresh 1987 Toyota Supra Turbo, and this one brings the kind of mileage that makes old Toyota fans blink twice. The white, left-hand-drive MkIII Supra shows just 8,461 kilometers, or 5,257 miles, and it heads to Mecum Indy with a five-speed manual, a removable targa-style roof, and a red/burgundy cabin that looks like it came straight from a late-1980s showroom brochure. The same car reached a $65,000 high bid at Mecum Glendale in March but did not sell, so the next trip across the block should tell plenty about how much collectors want a preserved MkIII Supra Turbo right now. A Time-Capsule Supra With All The Good Stuff imgi_1_898874 This Supra checks the boxes that matter. It has the 3.0-liter turbocharged 7M-GTE inline-six, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox, and the Sport Roof body style. The color combo is rare and classic – white outside, red/burgundy inside. That cabin color may scare beige-car people, but for anyone who remembers Toyota interiors from this era, it hits like a cassette deck with perfect bass.The Mecum listing notes that the car still wears its original tires and that it was bought new in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 6, 1988. Cars like this usually rack up miles, engine swaps, boost controllers, and “just one tasteful stereo install.” This one seems to have avoided that path almost completely. The next owner should not drive it hard on those old tires, of course, unless they enjoy turning rare rubber into scary rubber. The MkIII Turbo Deserves More Respect imgi_1_882259 The A70 Supra often lives in the giant shadow of the MkIV, but the 1987 Turbo helped set the recipe that later made the name famous. Toyota split the Supra away from the Celica line for this generation, kept it rear-wheel drive, and pushed it toward grand touring duty instead of making it a stripped-out sports car. That made the MkIII heavier than some rivals, but it also gave it a smooth, long-legged feel that still defines the best Supras.Period testing from Car and Driver showed why the Turbo was so good. The magazine tested the 230-hp car and registered 6.4 seconds for the 0-60 mph run, and a 145-mph top speed. Those numbers put it in the same conversation as the Mazda RX-7 Turbo, Porsche 944 Turbo, and even the Corvette, without asking the driver to give up Toyota comfort.The 1987 Turbo also brought smart hardware. Toyota gave it an intercooled turbocharger, oil cooler, limited-slip differential, headlamp washers, and TEMS, the company’s electronically controlled suspension system. TEMS could adjust shock behavior through different settings, which sounds normal now but felt properly high-tech when pop-up headlights still counted as design drama. What Is This Supra’s Realistic Price? imgi_1_415632 The biggest question is not whether this Supra is cool – it obviously is. The question is whether collectors now see the MkIII Turbo as a serious blue-chip Japanese performance car or still as the bargain bridge between the Celica Supra and the MkIV legend.Classic.com places the A70 Supra Turbo market benchmark at $24,540 and lists the highest recorded sale at $88,888 for a 1987 Supra Turbo 5-Speed in February 2022. That makes this 5,257-mile Mecum car especially interesting. Its earlier $65,000 high bid already sat far above the market benchmark, but low-mile, manual, highly original cars play by different rules. Condition and originality can bend price guides like warm plastic.
