Electric vehicles may have overtaken manual transmissions in terms of sales in the U.S., but among enthusiasts, the passion for the stick is still strong. Case in point: San Antonio, Texas tuner European Auto Group (EAG) has done what Toyota and BMW refused to do and fitted the 2020 GR Supra with an honest-to-goodness six-speed manual transmission. And after weeks of hard work, the car is finally ready for SEMA 2019.
EAG has documented the build pretty extensively on YouTube, and as seen in their most recent video, the three-pedaled Supra can now move under its own power. "We did it. We got it running. Shifts through the gears, clutch feels great, engagement's smooth, no grinding," said shop owner Art Bartosik.
Notably, this isn't the first car EAG has performed a manual conversion on. The Texas outfit was also responsible for that gated six-speed Ferrari 458 Italia we reported on over the summer as well as the world's first manual-converted 430 Scuderia.
As of Friday, some bits of the Supra's altered interior still needed some final buttoning up but we fully expect the car to be completely finished when it hits the show floor at SEMA this week. According to CarBuzz, the center buttons controlling lane keep assist, traction control, auto stop/start, and parking brake had to be relocated while the climate control buttons had to be pushed in 2.5 inches to accommodate the car's manual shifter.
Fortunately, this isn't just a one-off engineering exercise made to generate internet buzz, because interested Supra owners will be able to ship their cars to EAG and have 'em converted. Granted, it'll cost a decent chunk of change and there will most likely be a long waiting list. The shop told CarBuzz that it plans on carrying out just 16 swaps next year, each costing a total of $12,000 with a $6,000 upfront deposit.
It doesn't look like EAG is finished with the mad manual conversions either because listed under "Future Development" on the shop's website is a little-known car called the Chevrolet C8 Corvette.
