It looks like a manual A90 Supra is going to be made after all. But it won’t be coming from Toyota.
We already knew that Toyota wasn’t going to give a manual transmission to the new Supra. They play coy and say they might do it, should the market appear strong enough, but if less than a third of folks buy a Toyota 83 in manual, probably even fewer will opt for a manual Supra.
So, no manual for the Toyota Supra. At least, not from Toyota. But if you really want a manual Supra, you could call up Texas tuner European Auto Group, who are currently in the process of making their very own Supra manual conversion.
You might be wondering why a Texas-based company has a name that singles our European cars. That’s because they specialize in BMW and Ferrari products, both of which are made in Europe. They’ve already made a manual conversion for the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and are working to give one to the 458. And since all the Supra’s mechanical components are from BMW, the Supra is totally in EAG’s wheelhouse.
In an interview with CarBuzz, EAG owner Art Bartosik said that work on the Supra manual conversion is currently underway and "we are now taking customer deposits." Those deposits are $6,000, while the whole price of the manual swap will set you back $12,000. It’ll also take 30 to 45 days, but you’ll at least be able to ask Toyota to deliver your Supra directly to EAG so they can start work without delay.
Bartosik said that they’ll use all BMW OEM parts in their Supra manual transmission project, which should work perfectly given that the Supra’s sister car, the BMW Z4, still has a manual option. We suspect that it’ll be easy to just reverse-engineer how BMW does it at the factory.
Also, EAG will partner with Canadian tuners ProTurning Freaks to give the Supra a bit of a power boosts; something around 420 horsepower at the rear wheels.
And who knows? Maybe if EAG starts getting a lot of orders it’ll convince Toyota to make a production manual Supra after all.