Tada-San said that all the OE improvements will be backward-compatible on the earlier cars. So, just buy the part at the Toyota dealer and stick it on.So, if it gets factory upgrades, does this mean first year customers will have lower-powered cars, or will/can the upgrades be applied to all cars from this generation? Does he mean upgrades to the current B58?
Still the same "maybe" answer. I will say though, Tada-San said that they were indeed testing a manual but it was not up-to-spec durability wise for what they wanted. Apparently there is still a manual in development somewhere, but honestly, I couldn't get any solid information. He said none of the BMW M manuals were up to spec for what he wanted.What about transmission upgrade? Is manual transmission coming, after all?
Also, here's another interesting tidbit. Toyota and Tada-San evaluated doing the entire Supra project by themselves at the beginning of development; including building a brand new Inline-6. They projected a 10-year development cycle for the entire project, 3 years specifically for just repurposing a factory in Aichi with new tooling and whatnot just for the engine. But the project couldn't move forward, because there are regulations that go into effect in 2020+ in a number of world markets that will further restrict emissions, noise regulations, efficiency, etc. Tada-San did not want a hybrid, and still does not want a hybrid (he says battery tech isn't at the level he wants to keep a sports car light enough and cheap enough), so they continued with the BMW collaboration. The BMW Collab was projected to take 5 years, it took 7.
Basically, if Toyota tried to do it themselves, it likely wouldn't be possible to create a simple, gas-engine, fun-to-drive sports car, especially at an attainable price, before regulations put a stranglehold on them.
This also might be why they went ahead and released an auto only version in 2019. Once the model is already on sale, they can get by with the older constraints apparently. Does that mean a manual later on? Idk, nobody knows for sure.
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