Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If you’re morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Close Like Starsky And Hutch, Stick To Clutch
Toyota took to Twitter today to tease the forthcoming manual GR Supra with a simple shot of three pedals trimmed in rubber and brushed metal. As expected, the visible arms of the pedalbox look very much like those on the current M3 – we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually the same assembly. More importantly, Toyota’s issued a picture of the back of the manual Supra showing a special red Supra badge exclusive to manual cars. A special badge for GR Supra owners who prioritize engagement over speed is pretty sweet, but I’m sure we’ll see aftermarket copies on automatic models. As for gearboxes, the ZF S6 six-speed manual gearbox has applications that bolt right up to the B58 inline-six’s bellhousing, although torque ratings do vary. The best bolt-up gearbox would be the ZF S6-53BZ with its 600 Nm (442 lb.-ft.) torque capacity rating. This variant of the ZF S6 gearbox blends well with Toyota’s reliability-focused philosophy and has never been used behind a B58 engine. Instead, the ZF S6-53BZ found its way behind BMW’s N54 inline-six, S58 M inline-six, N62 V8, N63 twin-turbo V8, S65 M V8, S85 M V10 and S63 twin-turbo M V8. That’s right, we first saw the S6-53BZ almost twenty years ago in the 2004 model year BMW 545i and 645Ci. Perhaps more importantly, the S6-53BZ is the only variant of the S6 gearbox rated to handle the six-cylinder Supra’s torque. Of course, there’s also a slim chance that the manual GR Supra won’t end up with a ZF S6-53BZ at all – Toyota UK claims the three-pedal sports car will feature “an all-new, tailor-made manual transmission.” Just keep in mind that all-new for Toyota doesn’t necessarily mean all-new for BMW. While we’re all eager to learn more about the three-pedal GR Supra’s oily bits, it looks like we might have to wait just a little bit longer. Toyota says that more information on the manual GR Supra will be shared over the coming weeks. Honestly, it’ll be interesting to see how a manual GR Supra does on the market. The new Z is almost in the hands of customers and likely to be cheaper while the next-generation BMW M2 is set to debut this year.
A Trax Remix
Okay, that’s not quite how it happened, but a GM spokesperson told Autoblog today that not only are rumors of the Chevrolet Trax’s death greatly exaggerated, a new Trax will actually be coming along this year. Figure a debut sometime in the fourth quarter of 2022 with production said to start in 2023. Honestly, it feels a bit strange knowing that the Trax will return. Doesn’t the Trailblazer serve the same purpose as a value-focused entry in the subcompact crossover segment? Apparently not, and as I’m never one to complain about more cheap cars on offer, I’m quite interested in seeing what GM cooks up for the next Trax.
From Code Beige To Code Brown
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that Toyota’s issued a recall for stability control faults. In 2010, Consumer Reports testing found that the 2010 Lexus GX 460 luxury SUV had a hilariously high stability control intervention threshold. During an emergency maneuver, the GX 460 could yaw up to 90 degrees before stability control kicked in. A stop-sale was issued and all 9,400 units were recalled. Check out Consumer Reports’ video below for hilarious low-res body-on-frame oversteer. Lead photo credit: Toyota For ‘enthusiast cars’, I cannot think of one single example where the automatic is worth more than the manual transmissioned version. The “manual 4 liiiiiiiiife” types usually tend to be the same crowd as the “I’ll wait and buy it used” guys too, so I just don’t see this moving the needle too much. It would be cool if I was wrong though. Yet, what’s the take rate going to be? Moreover, when get people actually start to take delivery of them? If Toyota could move 1500 manual Supras in the US this year, I’d be impressed. If they move fewer than 1000, there’s cause for concern. If they move fewer than 600, the regulatory costs to have gotten it out the door will still be noticeable — which hopefully doesn’t result in an internal “told you so” at Toyota. —– I live in the Boston area and I have seen vanishingly few Supras. I think three total so far, two of which were four-cylinders. Niche vehicles don’t have the liberty of waiting years to correct obvious mistakes. Of the choices given, M2>Supra>400Z, assuming they refresh the Supra handling with the manual. But realistically I’d rock a Cayman T. So the Trailblazer is too high end and Chevy needs a cheap subcompact crossover. Likely they also had unused capacity in Korea. Makes sense to give the people what you’ve convinced them they need. https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/7nBOJ/s4/chevrolet-tracker-2022.webp maybe the same one is headed your way? Cheers My pick in the 50-70k range is either the CT4 Blackwing or the [not quiiiite in the range] aforementioned M3. Because they’re awesome and #savethemanuals. At 3,300-3,400 lbs, the new plastic-fantastic 400Z and new Supra are approaching the weight of a massive rolling bank vault of a Mercedes Benz 300SDL I used to drive, and weigh nearly twice as much as my steel-bodied Triumph that is currently lugging around hundreds of pounds of batteries after being converted to electric. Even with a manual, hard pass. And this is knowing that a manual will improve it significantly. It’s still just too damned BIG of a car. Overall it’s better late than never as new shoppers have more to choose from.
