Toyota GR Supra manual coming for 2023

Toyota clearly isn’t taking the impending arrival of the new-generation Nissan Z lightly with leaks out of Japan revealing the existence of the first manual Toyota GR Supra.

Production is tipped to start in July, but it remains to be seen if Toyota’s local division will put its hand up for it and when or even if the DIY transmission will become available in Australia.

Either way, Creative311 is reporting the manual Supra will make its global debut in October for the 2023 model year and will only be available in full-fat, Z-baiting six-cylinder guise.

That bodes well for Australia, where the four-cylinder Supra has never been sold and the six-cylinder version is available in two auto-only variants – GT and GTS.

The transmission in question will almost certainly be a BMW unit sourced from either the BMW M2 Competition or possibly even the latest BMW M3/M4 duo.

For reference, the Supra coupe’s twin under the skin, the BMW Z4 roadster, is also an eight-speed auto-only model but is available with both inline four- and six-cylinder turbo-petrol engines Down Under (2.0-litre for sDrive20i and sDrive30i models, 3.0-litre for the M40i), although a manual transmission is offered with the entry-level BMW Z4 sDrive20i in Germany.

Creative311 also suggests the new manual Supra variants will feature their own unique but subtle styling cues, primarily based around the 19-inch alloy wheel design, but this should ultimately come down to the trim level rather than which transmission is fitted.

Tipped to only be available on the base RZ overseas and therefore our base Supra GT, the manual will concede a few tenths of a second to the eight-speed automatic in the 0-100km/h sprint, but should offer more driver involvement and a lower asking price in return.

Given the current Supra GT retails for $87,303 plus on-road costs, we expect the manual version to drop that figure down towards the $84,000 or $85,000 mark, pending any COVID-inflicted price rises for the established variants.

With the Supra manual yet to be officially confirmed by Toyota, the Japanese brand’s local arm was reluctant to confirm or deny its interest in such a car, telling carsales it “continues to evaluate all new models which become available globally for our market”.

Nor would Toyota Australia offer any hope for the possibility of a hotter GRMN version of its flagship sports coupe, saying there are “no announcements to make on GR Supra at this time”.

Toyota has always said it would deliver annual upgrades to its born-again Supra and the most recent of them was an upgrade to 285kW/500Nm outputs from its BMW-sourced turbo six in late 2020.

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