We don't buy into the whole "It's just a BMW," way of thinking permeating internet comment sections about the new Supra. The most important thing about the new Toyota Supra, the essential thing, in fact, is that it keeps the core spirit of the Mk IV model. Anything else after an excellent chassis and a tunable and robust engine is gravy. However, we like gravy, and it is a fair criticism to say Toyota could have put its own stamp on the interior. We came across this interior concept rendering by j.b cars of its take on the Supra's cockpit and we like it a lot.

For those that need a memory refresh, the pictures below are from the interior of the MK IV Supra. It has a deliberately driver-centric dashboard that curves inward and leaves the driver feeling like they are in a cockpit rather than a cabin. It's a cockpit you can hunker down in, and worthy of a road weapon. The new Supra's cockpit does vaguely aim for that, but sections the driver off from the gear control and keeps the HVAC and infotainment central. That's fine for the Supra's BMW Z4 sibling, but we would like some gravy on our Supra.

The concept rendering of the new Supra's dashboard also shows a manual gear stick. We've reported on European Auto Group's (EAG) aftermarket manual swap before, and the fact the San Antonio based company had to redesign the dashboard to accommodate the stick shift. Building the rendering as a modification would open a whole new can of engineering worms, but we suspect there would be a market for this as a modification by a company specializing in interiors. Maybe if EAG doesn't want to take this on, someone that does could partner up with them. It wouldn't just have to be for manual swaps, after all.