Few cars have been so loved over the years as the Toyota Supra. The love fans have for it is outstanding and has grown to such biblical proportions that it even evolved into a meme. That’s probably why, when the new generation was launched, some people felt a bit disappointed by the fact that it lacked an important element for any car enthusiast: a manual gearbox.
We’re definitely not zealots over here, trying to say that automatic gearboxes aren’t good or that you can’t have fun with a car using one, but there’s a different feeling to a manual and we get why some people got upset. That said, it looks like the tides are turning, against all odds, if we’re to believe a new report from The Drive.
According to them, quoting anonymous sources, the Toyota Supra will be getting a manual six-speed option in the near future. This comes after another report made the rounds last year, but with a bit of a twist. Whereas the report from last year claimed that this option will only be available on the entry-level, 2-liter version, this time we’re looking at the full-on GR version, with the loved BMW straight six under the hood.
Don’t get too excited just yet though, as this is just a rumor right now, with a very shady source. It can get easily blown out of proportion and there are logical reasons why this might actually not happen. In case you forgot, the Supra is using the same platform as the BMW Z4. Moreover, both cars use BMW’s excellent engines and the same ZF gearbox. BMW is not offering a manual on the Z4 and doesn’t plan on doing that anytime soon. Therefore, the entire car could’ve been developed around a platform that wasn’t designed to offer a manual in the first place. Whether this is mechanically possible or not, remains to be seen.
What is possible, though, is that Toyota is trying to keep up with Nissan and its Z model. In that case, we’re talking about a car that will use a Mercedes-sourced automatic transmission as well as a manual option from the get go. Whether that’s the reason behind such a move or not, remains to be seen, but you have to love what competition can squeeze out of these companies.
