Also known as: s6-53, gs6-53, s6-53bz, gs6-53bz, gs6-45bz, s6-45, s6-37, s637
ZF's rear-drive six-speed manual — in the Jaguar S-Type and the Toyota Supra A90.
The Supra pairing is the reason to know it. The A90 is a BMW Z4 underneath, so its manual gearbox is BMW's ZF unit and its literature is German — a Supra owner searching Toyota sources for a manual gearbox is looking in the wrong place entirely, and Toyota published very little because the car is not theirs below the badge.
It is a strong gearbox and its complaints are about feel. These are notchy when cold and reluctant into second until warm, which is normal for the synchro material — and on the Supra it is compounded by the throttle-blip and rev-hang the engine management applies, which is a control question rather than a mechanical one.
Where something wears it is the shifter bushings and the clutch hydraulics, not the gearbox. A crunch into every gear is the clutch not releasing; a crunch into one gear on a fast change is that gear's synchro. The distinction decides whether the gearbox comes out at all.
Cars fitted with this gearbox
2 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.
Jaguar
Toyota
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