Described as Japan’s first super car, the Toyota GT 2000 produced from 1967 to 1970, with only 351 being made, of which 62 were left hand drive. It was Toyota’s answer to the E type Jaguar, although most were sold in Japan and hardly heard of in Europe.
| Had the pleasure of going to lunch at the Glion car museum, and seeing this car, the Toyota GT 2000 |
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It was originally designed for Nissan by Yamaha, but Nissan turned it down as they had their own model soon to come on the market, the Fairlady Z, or known under the export label Fairlady 240Z, released in 1991 in Japan. As Nissan had rejected the prototype designed by Yamaha, Toyota took it on in an attempt to change their conservative car image. The Toyota designer Satoru Nozaki was assigned the job. He leaned heavily on the E type Jaguar design. If you see a photo of the rear of the GT 2000, you could easily mistake it for an E type Jaguar.
Road and Track magazine review on the car commented “one of the most exciting and enjoyable cars we have ever driven” and went on to compare it to the porsche 911.
Sold new in America for $6800. That would have been a good investment. One sold in America’s Sotheby’s car auctions for a whopping $1.2 million in 2013. Might pay to check your grand-fathers garage for the that forgotten Toyota GT2000 that he had!
