Did some work for a guy here in Sydney, has an example of the above car in garage, 100% complete, on blocks, covered in dust, doesn't appear to be rusty though. Bought it back in 1985 for next to nothing and had intended to restore down the track.
Never mind all that. I'll buy it. Tell him that since it is now considerably older than what it was when he bought it, I'll pay him 1/4 of what he paid!
If he falls for this, I also have land in Florida available for a song!
Seriously, this is my dream car. Others want Ferraris and Porsche 959's, etc, or Bentleys, or...I want a 2000GT. It was the car that proved the Japanese could compete in the sports car market, and was somewhat the basis for the Celica (in an off-handed way) and the Supra to come later.
I have a site bookmarked somewhere, either here or at work. I'll pass it along. It has a drawing of an early 'Celica', take a look at the drawing and tell me what it is!
Here's the URL. I had it bcakwards...the Prototype for the Celica was penned in 1969, 4 years after the 2000gt...but tell me what it looks like!!!
I didn't know much about the model, and wasn't expecting much in the way of engine/chassis specs, but from what he said about it, sounds quite advanced. As for the looks, (was hard to tell as I could only see the nose and part of the bonnet) it didn't look like a copy of anything else I could think of, which is refreshing for a Toyota. He had quite a collection of old/wierd cars (ever heard of a Bolwell MK
7?), but the Toyota was what he was most proud of, and unfortunately for you, intends to keep!
Considering a good one goes for over $100K USD, I don't blame him. At one time they were up to a quarter mil, but like everything from the go-go
80's things have settled down. A recent /Automobile/ Magazine listed it as one of the best cars to come from Japan, saying it was a Zero when introduced, and a Hero now, as the first real Jap sportscar. The engine is a Toyota designed in-line six 'massaged' by Yamaha, which at least means SOHC. Get a picture if you can, once you get past the 'bonnet'! ;)And as far as the other one...a Bowel???? ;)
Very rare car, even rarer than Ferraris and Bentleys. The coupe body style resembles a Jaguar XKE with a sloping rear hatch and long nose. 2 liter, DOHC. A former co-worker, now a Toyota dealer in Saco, ME deals in them. He had serial #1, which was going for $1 million. A one-of-a kind convertible was used in the James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice".
Hatchi, I couldn't see the URL in your last post. would you try again? Many thanks JB
Hey Hachi, I though that I heard a while back that Yamaha had a heavy hand in the design of the 2000GT. Is that right?
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Just found this at Myclassiccar.com;
"Well, Toyota did build a ?60s sports car, for a few short years anyway. First conceived as a two-seat sports coupe with fastback styling for Datsun, the car that went on to become the Toyota 2000 GT was styled by Graf Goertz, who had been responsible for the svelte styling of the BMW
503s and 507s. At the behest of Datsun, Goertz worked with Yamaha and built a running prototype of the design in 1963. Despite instigating its development, Datsun didn?t go for it and allowed Yamaha to do as it wished with the car, which was to pitch it to Toyota.From this prototype, what Toyota created was a GT package that was perhaps the most well engineered and designed production offering of the period (the cars were actually built by Yamaha). Off of a sheet metal backbone chassis was hung a coil-over sprung independent suspension system comprised of unequal length wishbones front and rear along with anti-roll bars. The rear lowers were adjustable; and the uppers, drilled for weight savings, had the coil-over strut mounted on top and connected into rigid strut towers that were incorporated into the backbone chassis. Rack and pinion steering offered crisp directional control with a quick 2.7 turns lock-to-lock. It was also the first Japanese production car to use disc brakes at all four corners, these being power-assisted, single-caliper Dunlops. Playing even more to the GT racer theme were cast magnesium rims held in place with center knock-offs."
The more I hear about this car the more I want one!
That's because upon reviewing my post, like a dimwit, I didn't paste one! Try this:
Engine. Toyota came up with the basic design, and then turned it over to Yamaha to massage it. Yamaha came up with one of their DOHC (doohickey?) heads and tuned it up a little (Thanks for the DOHC info, Ray O!)
Wow! Thanks. From what I had just read in this months Automobile Magazine, the design was Toyota with Yamaha doing the engines. But no mention the car wa s built by Yamaha. Interesting.
And I have wanted one ever since I saw the cute Jap girl in a James Bond movie (You only live twice?) driving one in 1968!!
I've drove my friend's, it was a blast. The only other car I have driven that came close in pucker factor was a Porsche Turbo with a performance chip, and that was more because that I was driving on an unfamiliar expressway in Tampa in a car with beaucoup blind spots.
Even if the price has dropped that much, it is sure to go back up at some point.
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