The 2023 Manual Toyota GR Supra Is Now The Car It Should’ve Been

Sometimes, we all need a do-over. Barring completely unconscionable behavior—say, manslaughter, or putting insane ingredients like peas into your guacamole—we are not defined by our worst days. We’re all deserving of second chances. The 2023 Toyota GR Supra is one of the best automotive examples of this idea that I’ve encountered yet.

This has happened before in the world of cars. Automakers don’t always get it right on the first try. I remember when the 2009 Subaru WRX got a sizable power bump, more aggressive looks and a retuned suspension after critics and fanboys accused the then-new 2008 model of going “soft.” More recently, Porsche issued a mea culpa by throwing a flat-six back into the 718 Boxster and Cayman when American buyers failed to warm up to the turbo flat-four. Or even this year, when Tesla quietly conceded that the yoke steering wheel in the Model S and Model X is a terrible idea. Do-overs happen and sometimes they need to.

In the case of Toyota, it relaunched the Supra with significant help from BMW in 2019, but the resulting high-performance, two-seat sports car came only with an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Don’t get me wrong—that ZF8 gearbox is outstanding, probably the best conventional torque converter-based autobox ever created. But a real (gasoline-powered, anyway) sports car ought to have a stick shift. Anything else is like… well, peas in guacamole, I suppose.

For the 2023 model year, Toyota has corrected this unfortunate oversight even when BMW couldn’t be bothered on its side. The result is not only what the Supra should’ve been from jump street, but also one of the best sports cars you can buy right now, full stop.

(Full Disclosure: Toyota loaned me a 2023 GR Supra for a weekend with a full tank of gasoline.) 

2023 Toyota GR Supra 3.0 MT

• Price: $55,650 base / $56,845 as-tested
• Engine: 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six, 382 hp, 368 lb-ft
• Transmission: 6-speed manual as-tested, 8-speed auto available, RWD
• Fuel Economy: 19 city/27 highway/21 combined
• Body Style: Two-door coupe

The story’s a pretty well-told one at this point. Gearhead CEO Akio Toyoda and other like-minded individuals at his company had wanted to bring the Supra back for years, but they all believed it needed an inline-six like the Supras of yore. Rather than spend a ton of money on a new engine and platform for a niche, low-volume sports car, Toyota approached BMW, which it turns out also wanted something more on par with the Boxster and Cayman.

Their team-up resulted in two cars, the new Z4 and the new Supra, more fraternal twins than identical ones. One is a convertible, one is a coupe, and there are some differences in engine and suspension tuning, but otherwise, they’re the same car. (This also leads to the somewhat jarring experience of seeing Toyota logos all over what is very obviously BMW’s iDrive software.) Both are available in turbocharged inline-four or inline-six configurations, but the latter is the one you really want because it packs a respectable 382 horsepower.

I’ll also say at the outset that I’ve always liked the new Supra. I get why it’s controversial; the looks aren’t for everyone, the wind buffeting issue is unforgivable and plenty of Toyota fans were turned off by the BMW guts. They wanted something homegrown. I think that’s a bit silly; if this is what takes to make modern sports cars, so be it, and complaining about getting a really great BMW sports car is like saying “Ugh, I can’t believe we have to eat at that really good steakhouse on someone else’s dime again!” Maybe I’d feel differently if Lexus made anything these days that can go toe-to-toe with an M3 and not get laughed at, but here we are.

Like I said before, the ZF8 automatic paddle-shift gearbox is the best auto ever made, in my estimation; it’s fast, it’s smooth, it can handle a ton of torque and it’s easier to live with than your average DCT.

But it’s not a manual. And while I tend to roll my eyes at the “no manual, no care” crowd for living in the wrong decade, you should be able to row your own damn gears on a two-seat sports car, especially one named Supra. Luckily, as of the 2023 model-year, now you can, and it’s a zero-cost option over the ZF8, so it’s a no-brainer, really.

It’s worth noting Toyota put some real effort into the manual gearbox for this car, as The Drive reported last year. This is not the six-speed manual BMW puts on the four-cylinder Z4 in other markets; it’s a ZF-manufactured gearbox designed to work with an assortment of other BMW inline-sixes but given a special parts assembly and tuning from Toyota. In other words, it’s a cousin to what you get in the current M3 and M4, but with its own unique designation for this car. That took some doing and I give Toyota credit for it.

So how does it drive? In a word, great. Great enough that your humble author was fairly pissed that he had to give it back, which doesn’t happen with a tremendous degree of regularity.

Throws on this six-speed gearbox are right in the Goldilocks range for a street car: not too short, not too long, and not much effort is needed but it’s not overly light, either. It’s super easy to find gears. Clutch operation raises no issues I can recall. I know manual gearboxes are dying, but it’s amazing how good they are these days, how forgiving and user-friendly they are now. I don’t want to claim this technology has hit its peak, but it feels like it’s close if not there already.

You also get the gift of automatic rev-matching, which is engaged by default but can be turned off via the infotainment system. Honestly, I kept it on the whole time. It’s seamless and fast and even makes around-town driving a bit easier. But if the heel-and-toe thing is your jam, it’s not a mandatory endeavor.

Needless to say, there is now a level of engagement present in the Supra that was always missing from the automatic car. This is what it always should’ve been. Probably, Toyota (and BMW) shouldn’t have bothered with an automatic at all. This gearbox unleashes potential that was always there, just hidden, held back.

The 382 horses you get from the Supra’s inline-six are more than adequate for highway passing, backroad shenanigans or track days (and it’s also closer to 400 hp at the wheels because BMW tends to sandbag its power ratings.) Make no mistake, this is a quick machine. I had the misfortune of driving it in and around New York City, and even on my usual testing grounds along the Palisades Parkway, it’s the kind of car that makes you angry speed limits are so low and everybody else around you isn’t driving with the same urgency you are. It also makes a great sound; I know BMW engine noises are kind of “fake” now and have been for a while, but in the EV era, I find myself caring much less.

Having said all that, the Supra walks a fine line between being a car you have to push to be fast and one you have to hold back; it’s right in the middle of both of those things. That’s a rare degree of balance in modern cars, I’ve found. I can’t call it visceral, but it’s never soft, either.

It’s also a superb handler, agile and reasonably small with tight and predictable steering. (I’ll also say Toyota’s suspension tuning gives you a ride that’s sporty but not overly punishing on garbage roads like too many of BMW’s own M cars are. German performance cars still feel like they’re tuned for countries that actually invest in their road infrastructure, unlike, uh, us.)

Inside, the cabin’s relatively cramped and not well-suited for the very tall. But the upside to getting a BMW-derived car is that it’s pretty nice in there, worthy of its $40,000+ price tag. The materials, leathers and switches all feel great to use, and BMW’s iDrive is one of the better control systems on the market. Now, that 8.8-inch touchscreen display is starting to feel surprisingly dated compared to the stuff that’s out there four years after the Supra’s release. But you’re buying this car for the driving dynamics, not the connected, automated, in-car subscription-driven multimedia experience we keep getting told is the future.

That’s another thing that was on my mind when I drove the Supra: it’s another car that feels like the best of now, or even 10 minutes ago. From the gas engine to the manual gearbox to the lack of focus on tech, it doesn’t presage where the auto industry is going next. If anything, it could be a symbol of what’s going to be lost in the coming transition to, and God forgive me for saying this, “electro-mobility.” There are valid reasons that’s coming, and I am genuinely excited about much of it, but it will also bring with it plenty of other changes customers may not be ready for.

This is why I’m not mad that Toyota turned to BMW for help with making the new Supra. If it keeps another great sports car on the road, does it really matter where the engine’s from or what the first letter of the VIN is? The Supra now competes directly with the new Nissan Z and the forthcoming Ford Mustang GT; both of these cars are heavily updated versions of their predecessors, not all-new, ground-up efforts. This is what we get for now until somebody figures out how to make a proper, engaging EV sports car that doesn’t weigh as much as an apartment complex.

The Toyota Supra isn’t the future. But to me, that’s okay. Because it’s still one of the most dynamic modern cars out there right now. When you’re in it, you’re too busy shifting gears, blowing past slower traffic, getting a little sideways in the corners and appreciating the power delivery of a good inline-six and a proper manual gearbox to care much about what happens after you climb out.

For however long you’re driving a manual Supra, you are living in the present. In today’s fast-paced and overly connected world, that is a gift unto itself.