Piston Stories

Manual Transmission, Maximum Impact: Chris Gleason’s GR Corolla Drives Awareness for Future Technicians

As a former tech executive, Chris Gleason respects innovation. But he also believes that something important is slipping away in the automotive industry. When manufacturers disproportionately focus on automation, there’s a kind of mechanical literacy that’s lost; a tactile experience, a way of relating to machines that formed the backbone of American car culture for a century. At the intersection of progress and passion, Chris Gleason makes the case for preserving the art of driving.

By Irina Bucur

July 23, 2025

When Gleason, a Connecticut-based collector, first bought the GR Corolla – now the centerpiece of a rolling awareness campaign for the Piston Foundation – he was struck by its unapologetically driver-focused design. It came with a manual transmission, racing seats, a wider stance, and a performance feature that lets the driver control how power is sent to each wheel, something usually handled by computers in modern cars. In a world leaning hard into automation, this car felt like a rare nod to the kind of hands-on driving experience that car enthusiasts cherish.

“Let’s encourage the younger generation to take an interest in these incredible, visceral, mechanical machines, and let’s keep them alive”

“There’s a lack of participation that’s required as new car technology evolves, and for most car enthusiasts, what the experience is all about is being part of the process of moving the car— so the steering, the paying attention part, the shifting of the gears, hearing the sound of the engine as it climbs through the different RPMs of the engine speed, and things like that,” he says. “Those are all very visceral, tactile, emotional experiences.”

The GR Corolla has since been wrapped in Piston Foundation branding and transformed into a mobile awareness campaign for the nonprofit’s mission: to fund skilled trade education for aspiring auto technicians and preserve the future of car culture by investing in the people who keep it alive.

Gleason plans to continue using the car to promote the foundation at events and on the road before eventually auctioning it on Bring a Trailer, with all proceeds donated back to support Piston’s programming.

“It’s an ideal vehicle for having that conversation, because you’re saying, we still can do this,” he says. “Let’s not lose it. Let’s encourage the younger generation to take an interest in these incredible, visceral, mechanical machines, and let’s keep them alive, either through pressuring manufacturers to find a way to continue to make these vehicles or having the younger people pursue a career that helps keep this passion alive for people.”

Piston Foundation volunteer Chris Gleason

On Sunday mornings, that philosophy plays out behind the wheel, when Gleason wakes before sunrise and heads out for a drive. A few hours later, he’s somewhere deep in Northwest Connecticut or on a country road in Northeastern New York. There’s no particular destination. No set route.

For this ritual, he often chooses an older car. Manual transmission. No GPS. “And with that,” he says, “it becomes a little bit of an adventure to find your way back home.”