10/11/2020 TOYOTA 2000GT
TOYOTA WHO? 2000GT
Today, Toyota are one of the world's biggest automo ve powerhouses. They produce almost 11 million cars a year-that's one car every three seconds! But they weren't always that way.
Back in 1918, Sakichi Toyoda created the world's first automa c spinning loom, and formed the Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company. In 1930, during the war with China, the Japanese government encouraged Toyoda to inves gate the produc on of automobiles, and Sakichi's son, Kiichiro, was sent to Europe to inves gate produc on methods and do other generally sneaky things, the li le ke!
In 1935, the Toyoda A1 passenger car and G1 pick up truck hit the roads, with the G1 being remarkably similar to the Dodge Powerwagon. In fact, numerous parts are actually interchangeable between the two. But it would be another 2 years before the Toyota name as we know it would appear, when the Toyota Motor Co was established in 1937-the difference in the name being owed to it being transcribed in Katakana rather than the original Kanji. In Chinese speaking markets, the brand is s ll referred to by the tradi onal Kanji name, but with Chinese pronuncia on. It's all incredibly confusing.
During World War 2, thanks to the efforts of the Japanese to conquer the Pacific, Toyota was dedicated en rely to truck produc on, and it wasn't un l the '50s that the company would be saved, following near bankruptcy, by an order for 5,000 trucks by the US Military for the Korean war. Wri en by: Si McNally I Photography by: Rick Noel 10/11/2020 TOYOTA 2000GT By 1965, Toyota were becoming be er known across the globe, but s ll had something of a staid, industrious look about them. Un l, that is, they debuted their new 2000GT at the Tokyo Motor Show. It quite literally transformed the image of the manufacturer overnight, and is now credited as being not only the first collec ble car to come out of Japan, but the WHAT? first Japanese supercar.
Most of the 2000GT's design was actually done by Yamaha, who ini ally offered the design to Nissan. However, they very politely said no, so Yamaha proposed the design to Toyota, then perceived as the most conserva ve of the Japanese car manufacturers. Looking to improve their image, Toyota accepted the proposal, but employed a design from their own designer, Satoru Nozaki. Many credit the original inspira on as Albrecht Goertz, designer of the Nissan 240Z, and there are a number of similari es between the two iconic shapes.
Between 1967 & '71, the car was produced under licence by Yamaha, and by the end of produc on just 351 cars would be built. They were driven by a powerplant based on the Toyota Crown saloon, albeit transformed by Yamaha with a double overhead camsha head and triple carbure ors. Top speed was 135mph, with a 5-speed manual gearbox pushing power through a limited slip diff to the rear wheels. New fangled rack and pinion steering was employed, ensuring that all 148bhp and 148 lb/ of torque were fully maximised on the road.
Thanks to aluminium construc on, the 2000GT weighs in at just over 1100kg, and is definitely designed with the smaller driver in mind. The car was made famous in 1967 by its appearance in Bond movie 'You Only Live Twice', where a conver ble 2000GT was used by Sean Connery to escape from the baddies in Japan. Toyota never made a conver ble version, and the two that were produced for the film only came about because Connery's 6'2” frame couldn't fit comfortable inside the normal 2000GT-so they had to chop the roof off!
I'm 6'2”, and I can vouch for the fact that I would find it exceedingly painful to drive the 2000GT, especially as the pedals and gear-lever were seemingly designed for the hands and feet of a small child.
This par cular car was built for the Australian market, where it would live for 10 years, before being