Stick With It: Toyota Supra to Gain a Manual

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If you’ve been making the excuse that the lack of a manual transmission is preventing you from signing on the line that is dotted for a new Toyota Supra, your time is up. According to the official Twitter account for Toyota USA, the sports car is gaining a third pedal.

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Details are scarce, as they often are with teasers of this type, but there’s no disputing the implication that the Supra will soon be available with a manual transmission. Anyone blessed with the gift of sight can see the brake and clutch pedals, accompanied by a floor-mounted accelerator the way nature and Akio Toyoda intended.

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Will it be offered in conjunction with the four-banger? The 3.0L V6? Both? It’s all a mystery for now, though we note the four-cylinder Supra uses a BMW-sourced 2.0L turbo mill, an engine which also appears in the so-called G20 3 Series sedan. That model is currently only available with an automatic, but development mules have been spotted sprouting manual transmission gearshifts from their centre consoles as far back as 2018, leading your author to make the statement today he expects the stick will only be offered with the 2.0L engine. Bookmark this page and – right or wrong – hold me to it at the end of the year, OK? In other markets, the stick is only currently available with diesel engines, specifically the 318d trim.

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In North America, the four-cylinder Supra – or Supra 2.0 as it is officially called – cranks out 255 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. While those aren’t world-shattering numbers, the roughly 200-pound savings in mass and better weight distribution have led more than a few pundits to declare it the more entertaining of the two brothers. Of course, plenty of keyboard warriors will sneer into their stale popcorn that a four-cylinder Supra is really just a Celica, but they’re free to move out of their parents’ basement at their leisure or whenever they find space for their comic book collection, whichever comes first.

At present, the Toyota GR Supra 2.0 (base) lists at $57,170 Canadian, and the 3.0 (Premium) starts at the sum of $68,460 for the 2022 model year, but a manual transmission is not yet listed as base or optional equipment in our Vehicle Research section.