Toyota's Yamaha-Built 2000GT Sports Car

Only 351 Toyota 2000GT sports cars were made 1967-1970, 62 of which were provided left-hand drive for sale in North America.

The Wikipedia entry outlines its fairly complicated background.   Apparently the original concept was by Yamaha, who failed to convince Nissan to produce the car.   But it appealed to Toyota.  What is not perfectly clear to me is how much body styling had been completed at that point.  Regardless, Wikipedia credits Toyota's Satoru Nozaki (English name-order) as being responsible for styling.

Confusingly, this RM Sothebys auction commentary mentions Raymond Loewy's name, but fails to pin down a direct connection to the car and does not mention Nozaki.

Then there is Mecum's commentary:

"Toyota began work on an automobile designed to compete with the new crop of premium European GTs, specifically the Jaguar E-type, as well as the Porsche 901 (soon called 911), Alfa Romeo 2600 and others. Project 280A was spearheaded by Toyota’s racing manager Jiro Kawano and his small team of around a half-dozen people, one of whom was stylist Satoru Nozaki.

"At the same time, Yamaha was attempting to expand its horizons as a sort of low-volume specialist subcontractor and had a four-cylinder sports car project called A550X ongoing with Nissan. Nissan had worked with Yamaha before but in this instance, altered its course and cancelled the A550X.

"As Yamaha had substantial money and commitment invested in the A550X, the company shopped it to Nissan’s arch-rival: Toyota. Since Yamaha would be assembling the limited-production sports cars, Toyota must surely have been pleased to avoid hand-building the engines and bodies. After that, a 2000GT prototype was swiftly completed for the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show in Harumi, where it stunned the world....

"Satoru Nozaki’s body was turned directly from his scale clay model into body bucks, and as no one in Japan had a production line capable of producing the 2000GT’s complex, compound curves, the semi-monocoque steel body was hand built, with all detachable panels and trim being numbered specific to each car. The impossibly low ride height of 3 feet 9 inches is made possible by a central beam, spine-frame with Ys at each end. This also created a front-mid engine position and gave the car its famously perfect balance."

A source I no longer can locate mentioned that Nozaki was inspired by the design of the Jaguar E-Type.  I placed some comparative photos in the Gallery section below.

The 2000GT is a superior design in my opinion, better than what Touring and Pininfarina were starting tp produce by the mid-1960s.  The majority of the 2000GTs ever built still exist, and from time to time you might have the chance to buy one at auction for someplace in the range of $600,000 to $1.2 million.

Photos below are of cars listed for sale or auction.

Gallery

Front 3/4 view.  The front features large, low-set lights that seem like headlights but might not be.

That's because the main headlights pivot upward when switched on.  Those lower lights are positioned fog-light height, so maybe that is what they are.

Side view.  Front wheel jounce range seems limited, but apparently there is no problem there.

Jaguar E-Type side view.  The similarity to the 2000GT seems superficial.  Shared characteristics are a long hood, a fastback/hatchback and the forward part of the rear fenderline.

Rear 3/4 view of the Jaguar and 2000GT.  The latter clearly has different shaping and detailing though the long hood - aft-set passenger compartment theme is the same.