Toyota has not shut the door on the possibility of offering the 2019 Toyota Supra with a manual-transmission; it just needs to make sure that there’s market demand for one. The automaker’s assistant chief engineer on the Supra project, Masayuki Kai, made that clear in a conversation with Road and Track. According to Kai, a manual-transmission Supra will depend entirely on the market reaction to the car, specifically the standard version that’s equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Those who are pining to see the returning Toyota Supra equipped a manual-transmission have the news they’ve been waiting for. All you have to do now is make your voices heard. If you’re loud enough, Toyota might just hear you.

That’s basically the message Masayuki Kai shared in a conversation with Road and Track.

Kai added that a stick-shift Supra is possible. Market feedback will play a big role, but Kai also hinted that if it does develop one, it needs to fall within the right financial reasons. Developing a manual-transmission Supra for the masses is the most expensive option, though not necessarily the best one. Far more practical, according to Kai, would be to offer the model as a special edition with a limited number of units available. “If we limit the volume, let's say a few hundred cars, then we can have less spent in tooling,” he said. “It could be that we introduce it as a special edition, with a special color or special wheels or something. We can combine these into a package and sell it as a limited edition."

It’s a fair option for a car that has a lot of people waiting with bated breath for its arrival. As it stands, the Supra will be powered by a 3.0-liter, turbocharged, straight-six engine. Toyota has not divulged power figures, but it did say that, conservatively, it will exceed 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque. Raising the power levels to that number will require modifications on other sections of the car, specifically the brakes, but it’s something that Toyota is capable of doing provided it makes sense to do it.

So rest easy, you manual-transmission-hungry lot, Toyota isn’t shutting the door on a stick shift Supra. On the contrary, it’s leaving the door wide enough so that if the other side of the room is loud enough, it can hear the calls clearly.

Further reading

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Toyota Supra.

Read our full review on the 2014 Toyota FT-1 concept car.