A rare piece of Toyota History In Tochigi Japan
Year / Make: 1968 Toyota 2000 GT
Price: $SHOW CAR ONLY
Vehicle Type: Sport Coupe
Engine: 2.0 L (150 HP)
Mileage: 67000
Transmission: 6 - speed
Exterior: White
Interior: Black Vinyl
Drive: RWD
Stock #: C-213
Contact Phone: (808) 943-1818
Contact E-Mail: american@cchono.com
More Details: Just after The Tokyo Auto Show 2007, AutoHawaii.com went touring Japan and found this extremely rare Toyota in Tochigi Japan. One of only 352 ever made and a James Bond Car. Read all about this very rare and special car below.

The Toyota 2000GT was a sports car produced in very limited numbers by Toyota in Japan. First seen at the Tokyo Motor Show of 1965, production vehicles were built between 1967 and 1970. It revolutionized the automotive world's view of Japan, formerly seen as a producer of imitative and stodgily practical vehicles, and showed that the Japanese makers could produce a sports car to rival those of Europe.

Although not nowadays quite as well known to the general public as later Japanese sports cars like the Nissan Z, the 2000GT is regarded by many collectors as possibly the first highly collectible Japanese car. As of 2004, good examples can reach very high auction prices (reaching even $200,000 at auctions), though parts availability is a problem. Some combination of interesting provenance (particularly the first and second owners) and cosmetic perfection seems to be the formula for the highest auction values. Panel fit, overall finish, and interior quality/originality seem to be the primary value factors.

Reviewing a pre-production car in 1967, Road & Track magazine summed up the 2000 GT (sic) as "one of the most exciting and enjoyable cars we've driven", and compared it favorably to the Porsche 911. Today, the car is seen as the first seriously collectible Japanese car, the first "Japanese Supercar", and examples change hands for fairly high prices.

Much of the work was done by Yamaha, who in addition to their wide product range of the time also did much work for other Japanese manufacturers. Many credit the German-American designer Albrecht Goertz, a protegé of Raymond Loewy, as designer. He had gone to Yamaha in Japan in the early 1960s to develop a two-seater sports car for Nissan. A prototype was built, but Nissan decided eventually not to pursue the project. Yamaha also worked for Toyota, then perceived as the most conservative of the Japanese auto makers. Wishing to improve their image, Toyota accepted the proposal instead, but with a design of their own penned by Toyota designer Satoru Nozaki.

The engine was a 2.0 L (121 in³) straight-6 (the 3M) based on the engine the top-of-the-line Toyota Crown sedan. It was transformed by Yamaha with new double overhead camshaft heads into a 112 kW (150 hp) sports car engine. Carburation was through three two-barrel Solex 40 PHH units. Nine special MF-12 models were also built with the larger 2.3 L 2M engine. The car was available with three different final drives; optioned with the 4.375 ratio version, the car was said to be capable of reaching 135 mph (217 km/h).

The engine was mounted longitudinally and drove the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission. A limited slip differential was fitted, and in a first for a Japanese car, all-round power-assisted disc brakes. The atypical emergency brake gripped the rear disc directly.

The interior offered comfortable, if cramped, accommodation and luxury touches like a rosewood-veneer dashboard and an auto-seeking radio tuner. At the time, Road & Track felt that the interior was up to par for a "luxurious GT", calling it an impressive car "in which to sit or ride - or simply admire."

An absolutely minuscule 351 (regular production cars) of the 2000GT were built, figures as low as specialist Italian supercar construction. According to Toyota and Yamaha data, there were 233 MF10s, 109 MF10Ls, and nine MF12Ls. All were actually built by Yamaha; it took two years for production vehicles to emerge. In America, the 2000GT sold for about $6,800, much more than contemporary Porsches and Jaguars. It is believed that no profit was made on the cars despite their high price; they were more concept cars and a demonstration of ability than a true production vehicle. About 60 cars reached North America and the others were similarly thinly spread worldwide. Most 2000GTs were painted either red or white.

Ironically, the number of toy 2000GTs made must far outstrip the amount of real cars produced. The car was widely modelled when new, and is still a popular subject with model manufacturers. Scale renditions of the car have been produced by Corgi Toys, Mebetoys, Playart, Yatming, Tekno, Diapet and numerous other manufacturers, while plastic kits have been also been produced in numerous scales by companies including Airfix. In addition to models of the coupe, several of these companies replicated the convertible produced for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

The Bond car has appeared as a diecast model and in plastic kit form, and although no convertible 2000GT was ever sold to the public, some makers manufactured model convertible 2000GTs which clearly replicated the Bond car, but were finished in colours other than the white of the car in the film. Notably, Corgi and Playart both did this, as did kit manufacturer MPC.