Toyota clarifies manual Supra and GR86 no-show at Kyalami Festival of Motoring

Set to have made their eagerly awaited debuts at last week’s Kyalami Festival of Motoring, the all-new Toyota GR86 and manual-equipped GR Supra were surprise absentees in spite of having being confirmed months before.

The remaining two models, in addition to the “under consideration” GR Corolla still to arrive on local soil, the first being the recently updated GR Yaris, the automaker has responded by confirming to The Citizen that “global production allocation was revised, which in turn has pushed out vehicle arrival for our market.

“We are currently awaiting updated allocation details in order to confirm local introduction timing”.

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On the subject of the GR86, Toyota stated that the renamed successor for the 86/GT86 is currently undergoing homologation with current projection pointing to a possible reveal in November this year.

It further stated that, “customers are encouraged to register their interest in both models at their nearest Toyota dealer”.

Unveiled back in April, the arrival of the manual GR Supra will coincide with the upgraded BMW-made B58 3.0-litre straight-six engine that currently outputs 250kW/500Nm.

In revised form, the mill pumps out 285 kW with torque remaining unchanged. Aside from the transmission, the carryover eight-speed automatic-equipped model is also expected to benefit from the power hike.

The extensive reworkings attributed to the manual ‘box, comprising a larger clutch and spring, retuned driveshaft and gear set, as well as retuned suspension, steering and removal of certain sound-deadening materials, hasn’t translated to the reveal of any performance figures compared to the automatic.

Additionally fitted with Toyota’s Intelligent Manual Transmission (iMT) function that blips the throttle on downshifts, the expected weight drop attributed to the manual is, however, unlikely to result in a faster acceleration time than the 4.3 seconds it takes the automatic GR Supra to get from 0-100 km/h.

The other side of the coin is that the mentioned sprint time could be identical once revealed. Almost certain to be similar to the automatic is the limited 250 km/h top speed.

In the United States, all variants of the GR Supra have access to the manual transmission, which could be mirrored on the South African line-up currently consisting of the entry-level Track and the undesignated flagship model.

For the time being though, this, together with the final asking price, remains unknown on account of the more powerful engine not being available at present.

At the other end of the spectrum, the GR86 will offer both the six-speed manual and six-speed automatic transmissions, hooked to the new 2.4-litre FA24 engine that replaces the GT86’s 2.0-litre FA20D.

The same unit that powers the sister Subaru BRZ and the new Subaru WRX, the eschewing of the latter’s turbocharger means outputs drop from 202kW/350Nm to 173kW/250Nm, with respective 0-100 km/h times of 6.3 seconds for the manual and 7.4 seconds for the automatic.

As with the Supra, pricing for the GR86 is unknown, though expect a possible starting sticker of around the R750 000 mark.