Interviews with Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada

[Prius_F_Sport]

And that means..?

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[Captain_Kirk]

 

[Spilner]

Tada: just keep nodding

 

[tha7osavage]

Tried watching with English captions... yeah, that's not gonna work... lol

 

[zakira]

I watched the interview.

MT is still under consideration, it's not dead. Tada's concern is that the next engine is very torquey, which is very hard to give a good shift feel to. He said that the 86 has a very good shift feel, so the Supra being its older brother, has to be even better. But it's just hard to do because of the torque. He explains that smaller engines pair with MT the best and that the Honda Beat was the best shifting car he's ever driven. He goes on to say how Porsche still offers MT but on their high end models. He says that they get around the torque issue by using exotic material in their MT, and that if Supra did the same, the price would be prohibitive.

But they are still talking with marketing to decide on offering the MT or not.

 

[tfoxyr]

I watched the interview.

MT is still under consideration, it's not dead. Tada's concern is that the next engine is very torquey, which is very hard to give a good shift feel to. He said that the 86 has a very good shift feel, so the Supra being its older brother, has to be even better. But it's just hard to do because of the torque. He explains that smaller engines pair with MT the best and that the Honda Beat was the best shifting car he's ever driven. He goes on to say how Porsche still offers MT but on their high end models. He says that they get around the torque issue by using exotic material in their MT, and that if Supra did the same, the price would be prohibitive.

But they are still talking with marketing to decide on offering the MT or not.

i think he talked about 3 toyota sports cars at some point , am i wrong or he actually talked about that?

 

[zakira]

i think he talked about 3 toyota sports cars at some point , am i wrong or he actually talked about that?

Yes he did, somewhere. I can't remember where it's so long. But he said it's definitely happening.

When he developed the 86, he didn't think the car was gonna be so popular among tuners and be widely used in racing, so it's not that modification friendly. So that being a lesson learned, he developed the Supra to be racing and tuner friendly. He convinced BMW to design things certain ways to accommodate that.

 

[tfoxyr]

Yes he did, somewhere. I can't remember where it's so long. But he said it's definitely happening.

When he developed the 86, he didn't think the car was gonna be so popular among tuners and be widely used in racing, so it's not that modification friendly. So that being a lesson learned, he developed the Supra to be racing and tuner friendly. He convinced BMW to design things certain ways to accommodate that.

thanks dude . Very interesting to find out about the philosophy behind the decisions made for the supra too.

 

[Prius_F_Sport]

At least he's considering it. You all can take a deep breath now.
But that doesn't make sense. AFAIK the Henessey Venom had an MT, and that has 1100+ lb-ft of torque. Porsche is a good example, as well as Aston Martin's V12 Vantage, Audi R8 V10, the M5 E60, CTS-V... I could go on forever.

 

[Galerion]

At least he's considering it. You all can take a deep breath now.
But that doesn't make sense. AFAIK the Henessey Venom had an MT, and that has 1100+ lb-ft of torque. Porsche is a good example, as well as Aston Martin's V12 Vantage, Audi R8 V10, the M5 E60, CTS-V... I could go on forever.

He did say that the torque problem can be fixed but that requires using more exotic materials which would demand a higher price.
I mean none of the cars you have mentioned are cheap by any means.

 

[Modal170]

He did say that the torque problem can be fixed but that requires using more exotic materials which would demand a higher price.
I mean none of the cars you have mentioned are cheap by any means.

As Moto said I think, if the sales justify the continue development of the car, we will likely see the manual alongside other improvements in the car.

 

[Prius_F_Sport]

He did say that the torque problem can be fixed but that requires using more exotic materials which would demand a higher price.
I mean none of the cars you have mentioned are cheap by any means.

Okayyy. I stand corrected.
The GT86, if I'm not mistaken, had an auto for extra price? Not sure why Tada would say "you need 'exotic' materials to make a decent manual". I would suggest Toyota offer two manual options.
One will stay stock, tampering with it will mess it up, and too much torque will void the warranty, etc.
The second is like an MG9/T56 (sorry, I look at the GM Performance website too much) and won't void the warranty as much, is supposed to be stiffer and handle more torque, and so on.

 

[justbake]

I don't understand how BMW can put a manual behind a M3/M4 and in their 550i (TT V8) but all the sudden they don't have a trans that can handle the torque. Not to mention that BMW has transmissions that bolt onto B58s at their disposal. On the bright side, it won't be hard to swap if someone truly wants to (electronics aside.)

 

[A70TTR]

I would not be surprised what so ever if the next M2/M3/M4 is auto/DCT only.

They already made the decision to go auto only with the M5, granted that's a different class but still. I mean they tested the manual in the Z4 and apparently decided to not offer it... So, thus far they have been consistently dropping it as a feature.

here's an interview with the director of 'M' where he explains why autos are going to be the way going forward:

 

[justbake]

They already made the decision to go auto only with the M5, granted that's a different class but still.

This statement here is why I think it doesn't make sense to me, the M5 is a completely different animal than the Z4 and Supra so it understandable. But the M2 is not, which was just given a manual in the recent release of the Competition model. While I understand the Supra and Z4 do not need a manual, they have the resources to give a manual to other similar models in their lineup so why not the Supra and Z4?

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