Well purists, prepare to be engaged. The 2023 Toyota Supra can now be had with a six-speed manual transmission. Admittedly, only with the 3.0-liter inline-six and not the base four banger, but you didn’t want that thing anyway. Set off the fireworks, call your dealer, prepare to write angry comments that Toyota didn’t use one of its own manuals from a Corolla or something. Nope, the new six-speed manual is the product of ZF, the same German transmission supplier responsible for, you guessed it, BMW transmissions of all shapes and gear numbers (along with those of many other car companies). Toyota Motor Europe worked with ZF to adapt an existing transmission for a higher-torque engine (almost certainly the manual available in the European-market four-cylinder Z4), engineer a larger clutch and reinforce the diaphragm spring. The final drive ratio was shortened (3.46 versus 3.15) and Toyota says it also set the shift lever ratio to minimize the effort required to shift. The end result is a gearbox that certainly feels Germanic, but with shorter, more precise throws than we’ve come to expect from BMW’s historically rubbery and notchy manuals. It moves through ratios with a gentle guide from your thumb or forefingers, but possesses enough heft and slots into gear with enough resistance to feel appropriate for a sports car’s manual transmission. Perhaps the best way to describe it is the midpoint between a BMW and a GR86 gearbox. It’s quite good. The gearbox may be German, but the lever that operates it is pure Supra. Toyota says it worked hard to fine-tune the exact spherical shape of the shift lever. And bravo, because the little leather-wrapped cue ball fits perfectly in your hand atop its thin metal stalk. It looks and feels like something that should be in a car that starts at $53,595, including destination, or the same price as the equivalent automatic car. If there’s one thing, dear Toyota purists, for which you should be thankful the Supra inherited from the Bavarians is its pedal placement. The brake and accelerator are close enough to simply roll the ball of your foot over from left to right in order to heal-toe downshift. In a Corolla, you have to do the literal, old-school, ankle-disjointing heal-toe maneuver thanks to pedals as far apart as a Tundra’s. Of course, the Supra comes standard with iMT, which is Toyota speak for automated rev-match downshifting. Put the clutch in under braking and the car will automatically blip the throttle in anticipation of you dropping a gear. It works very well, especially on a track, to eliminate the chance for user error or when wanting to impress girls with “your” awesome rev-match throttle blipping (right before attempting a swoon-inducing handbrake turn, which admittedly will be hard since the Supra still has an electronic e-brake button). Turning off iMT requires using the Sport Individual drive mode setting. Besides the welcome new transmission, Toyota retuned the traction control system to deal with the increased likelihood of wheelspin due the combination of manual gearbox and human being. We didn’t get a chance to test it, but there’s also a new “Hairpin+” function that allows more wheelspin “when taking tight bends on an uphill gradient of more than 5% with a high-friction road surface.” The Supra also hits well with men in scoring position after the 8th inning while playing in Baltimore against a pitcher named Stanley. Every 2023 Supra then gets a revised stability control system to reduce the chance of snap-off oversteer, which has been a crusade for the engineering team since the car’s original development. Engineers also retuned the electric power steering and gave the suspension revised shocks that Toyota says improve roll balance and ride comfort. We actually got a chance to drive a 2022 Supra on the hour-long journey to Utah Motorsports Campus, but not on the track itself. Meanwhile, we only got to drive the new manual-blessed Supra on the track and therefore not on actual roads. So if there’s a difference for 2023, we didn’t notice but were hardly put in a position to notice. Along those lines, the track was perfectly acceptable, but was arguably not the ideal venue for this Supra because a manual transmission makes it … well, slower. If you really want to turn in faster laps, the automatic is still the way to go even if there’s still no Sport+ mode. Acceleration is quicker, as the 382-horsepower 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six is good for a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds as opposed to the new manual’s 4.2. And again, there’s the matter of user error. You don’t have to worry about a computer bouncing off the rev limiter, messing up a shift or doing something stupid with the clutch. Rather than worrying about all that stuff, the driver can focus more easily on the steering and chassis. Put it all together, and there’s a reason race cars don’t have clutch-operated six-speed manuals. #toyota #supra #toyotasupra
Transcript- So this is the 2023 Toyota Supra. Now, it's notable for two things. It's the new A91 edition, which gives you this beautiful camel-colored interior.
But the other thing is, ta-da, six-speed manual transmission. So let's see what it's like. It's great!
When I drove the Supra for the first time, I went, you know, I love this car. It is fantastic. But I don't think I want to buy one because it doesn't have a manual transmission.
Well, kids, now it does. Now, this is a ZF-produced manual transmission. Of course, that's who makes BMW manuals.
And the question is, does this feel like a BMW manual? Because frankly, that might not be such a great thing. They're characterized as having long throws, a bit rubbery.
Well, this does, in fact, have shorter throws. ZF and Toyota coordinated on that effort. It's still a little on the longer side, but it has a nice, crisp engagement to it and rev match downshifts, though you can do this the old fashioned way.
You can heel toe to do that. You put it into the sport individual setting. You can fiddle with that.
Otherwise, you can just leave it in auto rev matching. I personally prefer to do that. I can heel toe just fine, but the car can do it itself.
That's just that much quicker, that much less that I need to think of on the track. And it actually does a good job. It's one of the better systems out there.
So I like this manual on a track. I'm sure I would enjoy it on a mountain road or just driving around. Is it a little slower?
0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds versus 3.9. Do I care? No.
No, I don't. I'll take the greater engagement any day of the week. So welcome aboard, six speed manual. Glad to see you here in one of my favorite cars. I really like the Supra and just got a lot-- it just got that much better.
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