It seems pretty safe to say that the upcoming new Toyota Supra will not simply be a rebadged BMW Z4, even if the Supra's hardware is largely sourced from BMW. In this case, calling the cars jointly developed might even be a bit of a stretch. Supra program assistant chief engineer Masayuki Kai has said that the Z4 and Supra development teams severed their ties in 2014 and started doing their own thing as soon as the cars' hard points were agreed upon. This differs greatly from the way Toyota and Subaru developed the 86 and BRZ coupes, for example.

According to an interview with CNET, Kai said that his development team hasn't discussed the cars with anyone from BMW in four years. "We agreed on the packaging," Kai said at a Supra event in Madrid, "like where is the hip-point of the driver, what's the wheelbase, the width, where's the fuel tank, where's the A-pillar, this was around the middle of 2014. After that we completely separated our team. After that, no communication with each other." Not even Christmas cards?

Reportedly, Kai's team has little to no knowledge of the new Z4, apart from the platform. There are a host of shared components developed for both cars, but to the Toyota team, it's not that clear how many of those will actually have been used in the finished Z4. Kai didn't disclose if he has personally driven the BMW sibling. The BMW B58 engine began series production in 2015, so by mid-2014 it could have been ready to be handed over to Toyota engineers in a crate labeled "Use This for Supra, This Side Up."

If it can be believed, the entire detached-development story reads like it's simply a positive thing. Instead of just shaping the BMW-related car with a Toyota design language, yet having everything under the skin act identically, Toyota has been able to take the agreed-upon hardware and work it into the direction it sees as the best fit for a car called a Toyota Supra. Masayuki Kai underlined that suspension tuning, throttle response and shifting action have been given as much a Toyota feel as possible — and as seen during our test drive with a prototype G20 3-series, which will share the BMW straight-six engine used the Supra, steering weight and suspension settings can be software adjusted to such a great extent even on the fly that it can feel like a different car for different drivers.

Enthusiasts, a patient and long-suffering group, have not given up hope of getting the new Toyota Supra with a manual transmission. Toyota, taking advantage of enthusiast forbearance, has dangled the possibility of a manual transmission, but in the most nebulous terms. This counters earlier reports that there would be no manual. During the Supra's international launch in Madrid, both Road & Track and Australian outlet Car Advice asked assistant chief engineer Masayuki Kai about a stickshift. Kai told RT "It purely depends on the reaction of the market," and CA that Toyota will decide on a hand-shaker "depending on feedback from the market."

Key to this is that Kai said engineers have already developed a standard transmission, and "there is hardware ready." That hardware will clearly fit right-hand-drive Supras, Kai declaring that such a model "needs to be sold in Japan." After that, the situation gets fuzzy. If Toyota spent the money on creating a manual for RHD markets, it seems logical that they'd spend the comparatively much smaller sum to rearrange the necessary components for LHD markets, too.

However, the big spend is in compliance and mass production, which is apparently what gives Toyota pause. As Kai said to RT, "If, for example, U.S. customers are demanding strongly that Supra needs to be a manual-transmission car, then we will plan it."

Based on comments at Supra forums and on a legion of car sites including this one, it's difficult to believe Toyota wonders whether U.S. customers "are demanding strongly" a manual gearbox. On the other hand, Toyota has to think about what happens once it has fulfilled orders for all the old-timey Supra lovers; what will the manual take-rate be for the younger buyer fresh to the Supra fold?

Toyota already has limited- and special-edition Supras in mind, Kai telling RT the development teams must have plans "to introduce something new quite frequently, otherwise a car can lose interest." That could provide a potential route to a manual, with perhaps the carmaker releasing a special edition of "a few hundred cars."

Yet, without setting a bright line on how much feedback or how many deposits on a stickshift would be needed to compel manufacture, a row-your-own Supra remains in the folder labeled "Keep Dreaming." While hardcore owners pretend as best they can with the eight-speed automatic, know that there is a more hands-on solution out there, likely being hooned by a unicorn and a ManBearPig on their way to the Cave of the Winds.