The cries of driving enthusiasts have been answered. Toyota has just announced through social media that a manual transmission will be coming soon to the Toyota Supra sports coupe.
"You’ve spoken… And we’ve listened!" the automaker said on its Twitter account for Australia. The photo was accompanied by a picture of the Supra's pedal box complete with three pedals.
Toyota USA showed the same photo, asking "did you think we were done?" So the model won't only be a right-hand drive model available in countries very far away. Toyota is confirming that it will be sold in the States, so that makes the odds of it coming to Canada a whole lot higher.
Complaints about the Supra being automatic-only started even before the car went on sale. But using a shared platform with BMW along with the dwindling sales of three-pedal cars, made the possibility of a manual transmission Supra seem bleak.
Toyota UK expands on what's going to happen. They're calling the transmission "an all-new, tailor-made" gearbox that is "designed to meet the demands of driving purists." Apparently, the Gazoo Racing division, whose name is the first half of the GR Supra badge, wanted something more fitting of the racing part of its name.
The UK branch also confirmed another change to the car. That manual transmission Supras would get a red "Supra" script badge on the boot to let everyone know which version of the car they were looking at.
When will it arrive? We're not sure just yet. We're also not sure if it will be offered on the 382-hp 3.0L inline-six version of the car, the 255-hp 2.0L four-cylinder model, or both.
It could also be neither. Reports from Japan over the past few months have talked about a GRMN Supra, a 500-hp hardcore track-ready special model. A manual transmission would be a perfect fit there.
We'll wait and see and hope that the manual transmission will be offered in standard Supras, making it more accessible for more enthusiasts.
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