Quote Originally Posted by blacksambo View Post
I don't think we are saying" offered" for sale, but rather that the VX was designed from the outset to handle this transmission variation for factory racing purposes, only. Also, the parts catalog had to include those manual transmission pages to accomodate this intention because of other shared parts with the factory race cars.
He said "offered" you said "technically yes" so I'm saying "for sure, no" on the OP's initial question. As for the "designed from the outset..." argument, the VX was built on a Trooper chassis with a Rodeo dash to save $$$. Both of those vehicles had manual transmission options, so unless Isuzu was going to design a brand new auto-only firewall the VX couldn't help but be compatible with a manual transmission. It's like Tom said, the ability to swap to a manual was a side benefit of recycling existing components, not by some grand design.