Everything We Love About The New Manual 2023 Toyota GR Supra

Toyota Supra is a legendary name in the automobile industry that goes back decades. One of the biggest reasons behind the success of this car happens to be its immense tuning potential. The iconic name was brought back in 2020 and did justice to the legendary Supra name. Although the latest generation of the Supra was a great car, one of its drawbacks was the lack of a manual transmission.

The all-new 2023 Toyota Supra is revamped with design updates. Underneath the Toyota design essentially lies an engine sourced from BMW Z4, which the carmaker has tuned to add a signature Japanese touch.

The new manual GR Supra is now much more desirable and takes its competition head-on, especially the all-new Nissan Z, offered in a very similar configuration.

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Manual Transmission Delivers Heart-Pounding ‘Supra’ Power

The relaunched 2020 Toyota Supra was offered with an 8-speed automatic transmission sourced from BMW, which made sense as most of the underpinnings of the Supra were shared with the BMW Z4. For 2023, Toyota has sourced BMW’s 6-speed automatic transmission, and the performance division, Gazoo Racing, tuned the gearbox specifically for the Supra. Besides this, changes were also made to the gear ratio, drivetrains, and ECU to make this gearbox work. The Supra is available with two different engine options, a 2-liter inline four-cylinder turbocharged unit offered in the base trim, which shall remain automatic only and produces nearly 255 HP.

Then there is a more powerful 3-liter inline six-cylinder engine producing 382 HP and 367 lb-ft of torque. The manual transmission will only be available with the 3-liter engine, and Toyota has also released a new special edition called the A91-MT edition. Only 500 units of this special edition will be available for the North American market. Another minor revision for the manual transmission happens to be the recalibration of the traction control system and the stability control system.

The manual gearbox also has a shorter final drive ratio of 3.46 than the 3.15 of the automatic, along with a rev-matching feature, but it can be disabled should you enjoy doing it yourself. Apart from the gearbox, the vehicle’s suspension has also been tuned, which results in a firmer ride around corners. The supra gets a new feature called the Hairpin+, which can be enabled during steep uphill hairpin turns. The new feature allows a greater degree of difference between the spinning of the left and the right rear tire, with a recalibration of the rear differential.

Design Updates Across the Lineup

A major change to the vehicle’s exterior is the introduction of two new color schemes called matte white and hilariously named CU Later Gray offered on the limited edition model. It rides on 19-inch forged aluminum wheels that have also been redesigned. Apart from the mechanical changes, the Supra also gets revisions for the interior, and the most noticeable one is the redesigned center console. The center console has been widened to accommodate the larger manual gearbox and place the infotainment system controls in a much more ergonomic way.

The infotainment system is relatively familiar as it still uses the 8.8-inch touch screen and runs the latest generation of BMW iDrive software. The system is compatible with Apple CarPlay but surprisingly misses out on Android Auto. The limited-edition model exclusively comes with a brown leather interior, and the gear knob has an Alcantara finish to it. The digital gauge cluster has dynamic driving data and is built in-house by Toyota. The vehicle also comes with a twelve-speaker JBL sound system on the limited-edition model, while the lower trims get a 10-speaker sound system as standard. There is also a head-up display, wireless phone charging, and electronically adjustable seats with a heating function.

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Supra’s Top-Notch Safety

Along with reliability, if there is one thing Toyota is known for globally, it is to provide a suite of safety features as standard across the range. The 2023 Toyota Supra is no exception and comes with autonomous emergency braking along with pedestrian detection. Lane departure warning and lane-keep assist are also a part of the package, along with blind-spot detection.

Since the chassis is straight up from the BMW Z4, the vehicle is expected to have significant structural rigidity and score well in the Global NCAP safety test. It will also be interesting to see how these safety features work on the manual version since the autonomous emergency braking feature is only available with the automatic transmission.

The 2022 iteration of the Toyota Supra has a price of around $63,000. The carmaker states that the manual transmission will be available as an option, indicating an inevitable price increase over the top-spec trim. The manual gearbox could also affect the 0 to 60 mph time and the top speed because of the 440lbs added weight of the manual gearbox, not taking into account the time it takes to change gears manually. But the point of a manual Supra is not the acceleration, but the tactility and the driving sensation provides to the one behind the wheel. Overall, adding a stick shift makes the 2023 Toyota Supra a very appealing choice.

Source: Toyota

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