Shopping Supras

[Wantanesprit]

Afternoon all,

I've been looking at some early 90's Supra's recently and found a 91 Esprit and a 91 Tournament near me at good prices.

I've read that square windows = wood stringers, but there seems to be some debate on that... but is it essentially any boat before mid 92 that is wood stringer and everything after is fiberglass?

Thanks

[Mischief IV]

Supra did convert to composite stringers in 1992. The round windshield is definitely indicative of composite stringers however recently a few posts have popped up where a 1992 and a 1995 model year have had a square windshield which is rare and unknown to a lot of us diehard Supra fans. Keep in mind a recession hit in 1991-1992 and Supra was hard hit financially after they went public with the company in the late 80s. They could have been doing anything and everything to sell boats and keep the company afloat and using any old stock they had.
The Comp Classic in 1997 had the square windshield as it was a tribute to the original style of the Comp that came out in 1984.

Now on the opposite side, I believe I have a composite stringer 1991 Comp that was originally used as a Factory demo. It was built 6 months prior to the 1992 conversion but I can't find any rot and all is solid. This, from a boat that was rode hard and put away wet, so I expected to find something when I first inspected it but all engine bolts are tight, seat bases all composite, and no rot to be found anywhere. Another '91 Comp just 6 digits off my production number (both built January of '91) also has composite stringers as the owner has drilled his and tested them.

Being a '91, if you get the HIN off the rear transom, you can tell what month and year it was produced but the only way of actually finding out if wood or composite is to test the stringers. The closer the month to the '92 model year and you might just find a fully composite boat but who knows.