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.