The Toyota Supra cannot be ordered with two things: a canvas roof and a manual transmission. Whether this is because BMW doesn’t want a stronger competitor to the Z4, or whether the Japanese have found a reasonable explanation for the decision, doesn’t really matter. However, Tada Tecuja, the leader of the project, from the first moment, voiced that manual transmission was discarded not for theoretical but for practical reasons, and if there is a real need for the manual option, they will seriously consider its possibility.
This didn’t happen in the first two model years, but Toyota is constantly bringing out new model variants, from the four-cylinder, from the small engine to the high-performance one. The latest information is that Toyota will produce an extremely sporty version of the Supra GRMN, up to 500 horsepower, by 2023. The manual gearbox, on the other hand, may arrive even earlier, at least according to Japanese papers.
Since the Supra currently exists in four power levels in different markets around the world (the two-liter, four-cylinder unit with 197 and 258 horsepower, the 3.0-liter in-line six-cylinder powerplant with 340 and 387 horsepower), it is not known which version can get a three-pedal configuration.
Normally, the weakest entry model would sound logical, but the Supra is not your average car, so if a manual transmission is implemented, it will be a much more gourmet catch than a cost-cutting solution. That’s why, according to the Japanese magazine, the more powerful (258 hp, 400 Nm) version of the two-liter engine originally presented seems the most likely candidate, as it is closer to the classic recipe for Puritan sports cars with its lower weight than the six-row model.
It is not yet known whether this variant will be launched in the 2022 model year, or whether it expects a twice as strong peak - the former is supported by previous information, also from Tecuja Tada, that the current resources of the Supra project do not allow to deal with multiple developments at once.
(Source: vezess.hu / photo: pixabay.com)