Toyota Teases Manual GR Supra: Fun or Disappointing?
Since its return, the Toyota GR Supra has been a controversial car, to put it mildly. Enthusiasts were delighted about a new Supra and its inline-six-cylinder engine, then disappointed that it was a joint Toyota-BMW effort that looked and felt mostly like a BMW, then even more disappointed that the Supra was only available with an automatic transmission. In a tweet, Toyota has all but confirmed that a new manual-transmission version is on its way stateside … but is that really a good thing?
Related: Toyota 86 Vs. Toyota Supra 2.0: How Do Toyota’s 4-Cylinder Sports Cars Compare?
No, Toyota, we didn’t think you were done. We just have concerns. For starters: Which Supra is going to get the manual? The BMW Z4, with which the Supra shares a significant amount of its DNA, is only available with a manual when powered by a four-cylinder engine (and in that case only in Europe, so we can’t even tell you what it’s like). Having driven both the four- and six-cylinder Supras, we’d rather just skip the manual altogether if it’s only available with the former.
Second: Who’s making the manual? Is it going to be a BMW unit? Those haven’t really been pleasant to drive for a while, if we’re being honest. Most manual BMWs we’ve driven have felt almost intentionally bad in an effort to stop fans from asking for them, like purposely loading the dishwasher wrong just so you don’t get asked to do it in the future. If the manual transmission is a Toyota product, we’re willing to be more optimistic.
We’re usually big fans of manual transmissions here at Cars.com — we even created an entire holiday to celebrate them. But if the transmission in question isn’t good, we’d rather a manufacturer keep it on the shelf.
Toyota has shared no further details about when we might learn more about the manual Supra, so stay tuned.
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