Expect A Straight-Six But No Manual In The New Toyota Supra
Will the Supra have a manual gearbox option, or not? The “will they, won’t they” thing has rumbled on for months, fueled by a seemingly endless stream of conflicting rumours. Now though, we’ve had a clearest indication yet than the Supra - previewed by the GR Racing Concept at the Geneva Motor Show - will indeed be auto only.
Autoblog reports that, speaking at a rountable session at the Geneva show, high-ranking Toyota engineer Tetsuya Tada said that “Supra fans don’t think it’s a huge requirement.” Supra fans as a whole would probably disagree, but Tada-san - the man behind the GT86 - is probably more referring to Supra fans who are actually willing to stump up the cash to buy one, and in that case he’s on to something.
Like it or not, the people actually buying sports cars these days tend to opt for automatics - that’s why Alpine with its relatively limited resources didn’t make a manual. There was only scope to make one transmission choice, and a manual-only direction may well have harmed sales.
It’s not all bad news though, as Tada-san seemingly confirmed that the car would have a straight-six, because a Supra isn’t a Supra without one. That we can all agree on. It should be quite tuneable from the sounds of it, which is also a must if the car is to live up to the legendary name. This inline-six won’t be hooked up to a transaxle gearbox, but the Supra will still manage to have a 50:50 weight distribution.
So, when will we see the production car? Not for a while yet, is the answer. Topgear.com - which is also reporting that the Supra’s straight-six will be a “recalibrated” BMW engine - claims we’ll have to wait until the Detroit Auto Show in January 2019.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Can you still tune an engine, even if slightly, but still keep the auto?
Obviously. Most drag cars are auto and racing autos are specifically built for drag racing
Just look at the gearboxes in the GTR and NSX, were you expecting Toyota to give this a sluggish stone-age stick shift?
Toyota should’ve never played around with the idea of a new Supra, the risk of it flopping is just way to high. The old Supra fanbase won’t be interested because they’re stuck in 1998 and expect it to have a manual gearbox and a cast-iron engine block. New customers won’t be interested if it doesn’t deliver any noteworthy new technology or design, or isn’t priced or marketed competitively.
(See also: Honda NSX)
Toyota should’ve never played around with the idea of a new Supra, the risk of it flopping is just way too high. The old Supra fanbase won’t be interested because they’re stuck in 1998 and expect it to have a manual gearbox and a cast-iron engine block. New customers won’t be interested if it doesn’t deliver any noteworthy new technology or design, or isn’t priced or marketed competitively.
(See also: Honda NSX)
This is very true, we as car guys are the minority, and sadly, to impress us they will have to let down the other half. Since the most important thing for them is money and sale rates, they will logically go for the majority of people.
The Supra will probably be a premium, luxury car. Buyers of those cars want automatics. But I still say they should make a GT86 variant with more performance (possibly even with a detuned version of the straight-six if it’ll fit).
What? No manual option? In 2018 on a performance car? I’m “shocked”!
Welp, comment on point.
Sadly auto might be the way everything is going, with this technology it might also be faster. But, we still appreciate any manual transmission car because of the involvement and control of the vehicle.
The new Supra will probably too expensive for most of us when new and won’t get ‘’spanked’’ anyway.
As long as the auto has that h pattern automatic shifter from that brz concept, it would be amazing, personally I hate clicking through paddles its wonky, sequential boxes with the large shifter feels way more controlled. And satisfying. Lol
No manual?!?!?!?!? TRIGGERED
If theres no manual then it should be faster…..at least 500 hp
Toyota’s engineer: “You gotta go aftermarket bro”.