Toyota 2000GT

By the mid-1960s, Toyota , which had already gained fame at that time, decided not to limit itself to small cars and try to enter the sports car market.

However, Toyota itself , feeling a lack of experience in the production of sports cars, decided to entrust the development of the Yamaha car, which offered to use the remaining unclaimed order of Honda and put it up at the 1965 Tokyo auto show ^[2] .

The concept car with a streamlined exterior was greeted positively, and before the model went into mass production, two special samples were issued with an open body for the filming of the James Bond film in Japan - “ You live only twice .” The car was driven mainly by Bond’s girlfriend, Aki ( Akiko Wakabayashi ) ^[3] . The first production models came to buyers only in 1967 at the price of 6800 US dollars.

The car looked quite “aggressive”: a wide sharp front with closed headlights on its sides, apart from them, there was still an extra pair of headlights that were being pulled out of the hood; the windshield on high racks was smoothly narrowed and ended with sharp triangular-shaped windows above the rear wheels; instead of the rear bumpers were two metal protrusions in the form of canines; round rear lighting and turn signal repeaters were made along the edges of the rear wings and simulated jet nozzles; large wheel arches and alloy wheels; radiator grilles in the form of gills and twin exhaust pipes located in the center of the rear of the machine.

An independent lever-spring suspension, a 5-speed manual gearbox and a Toyota Crown engine with two camshafts and an exhaust manifold with access to each cylinder were installed on the chassis chassis frame. The 6-cylinder engine had a volume of 2 liters and allowed the car to accelerate to 219 km / h, acceleration 0-100 km / h took 10.4 seconds, acceleration time 0-160 km / h was 27.5 seconds. ^[4] The car stopped using disc brakes on all wheels. The interior used leather and wood, and on the dashboard was a large variety of sensors.

Especially for racing was released limited edition cars with a 2.3-liter engine with a capacity of 200 liters. with.

Toyota 2000GT for a long time remained the fastest car in Japan, and the company even attempted to enter the North American market by offering an automatic gearbox there. However, only 63 copies were sold in the United States , and a total of 351 cars were produced in five years: Nissan just started production of its 240z model ^[2] .

• Lychavko A.E. Cars-legends. - Minsk, 2007. - p. 116-117. - 128 s. - 3000 copies - ISBN 978-985-13-8842-0 .
• Yoshikawa, Shin. Toyota 2000GT: The First Supercar. - KAI Lebec, California USA, 2002. - ISBN 0-932128-10-6 .
• Langworth, Richard M. (ed.). Complete book of collectible cars: 60 years of blue-chip auto investments. - Gettysburg: Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, 2000. - ISBN 0-7853-0971-3 .
• James T. Crowe (ed). Toyota 2000 GT (Neopr.) // Road & Track Road Test Annual. - 1968. - S. 110-113 .

• Lifelong Pursuit (Unsolved) . Japanese Nostalgic Car . The date of circulation is January 2, 2007. Archived July 4, 2007.
• 2000GT opened doors internationally for Toyota , Chicago Sun-Times . The appeal date is August 22, 2004.
• REFLECTIONS: Toyota 2000GT marked Japan's rise in the auto industry (Neopr.) . London Free Press . The appeal date is August 22, 2004. Archived August 22, 2004.
• Zimmerman, Martin . From econo-boxes to collectors' cars , Los Angeles Times (October 13, 2007). Archived November 5, 2007. The appeal date is October 15, 2007.