After years of anticipation, Toyota revived the Supra back in 2019. It’s a fine piece of performance machinery, but Toyota launched it without a manual transmission option — a must-have for impractical sports coupes. The Supra’s main rival, the Porsche 718 Cayman, offers a stick shift; so does the up-and-coming Nissan Z looking to steal the Supra’s market share.
That said…it appears that Toyota may be about to join them.
Rumors sprang up last year that Toyota would add a manual transmission to the new Supra for the 2023 model year. Now, as spotted by CarScoops, Japanese website Creative 311 writes that the announcement should come next month — April 28th, to be specific.
The Japanese report meshes with previous rumors in claiming that Toyota will only offer the stick shift on the larger 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine Supra. And in Japan, Toyota will reportedly only make the manual available on the top-of-the-line RZ trim. Creative 311 says the manual Supra will lose some tech features predicated on having an automatic transmission like adaptive cruise control and rear emergency braking.
We can’t speak for the Toyota business side, but on the surface, Toyota adding a manual transmission option to the Supra makes a lot of sense. Supercars chase serious lap times; relatively affordable sports cars are about driving engagement. And however good the automatic option might be, manual transmissions tend to be more engaging for driving enthusiasts, even if the cars end up being a few ticks slower.
And hey, if you like the idea of a sporty Toyota, but aren’t that into the Supra — it can be an acquired taste aesthetically — Toyota also has a GR hot hatch version of the Corolla coming, which should pack 300 horsepower and have a manual option.
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