i know lots of supra owners that run a drag radial only and just dont really drive in the rain.

 

Ha... Please, street legal and it ran a 8.36. Having been to alot of the NHRA and IDRC event and having seen the so called "street tire" vehicles... Give me a break! You would never put those tires on a daily driver and you won't pass inspection with the engine setups there running. Never mind the 4In straight pipe.
There awesome cars...no doubt. But, its not everything the MKIV guys make it out to be. And I'm not going to make my Evo out to be anything than its not. But there are reason's to switch from a Supra to a Evo.

 

The reason that many 500-800hp Supras run close to the same times are not b/c of the tires but because they have miniscule power bands. Better, more grippy tires allow them to launch at higher rpms, getting them closer to the power band when they get going and making up for some of the lack of a low end, but in the end they would have been better off going for less power but a larger, usable, more even torque curve. Have you ever seen some of the high power Supra dynos? Looks like Mt. Everest rising out of the plains at 6000rpms when the absurdly large turbo they bolted on finally spools up, but it only makes power for those 1000-1500rpms or so before it hits rev limiter. Impressive to say "I have an 800hp Supra" and looks good on paper, but in real life a driver would be better off going with a few hundred less hp and a few thousand more usable rpms. The 2JZ-GTE is a great engine and all, but the way that a lot tuners approach it as a "Let's see who can make the most horsepower, regardless of powerband" challenge makes it harder and harder to take it seriously as a drag engine. For every 4 or 5 of max hp tuners out there, there is a tuner who actually wants to get the best performance out of the engine, but these dedicated tuners are few and far between.