When Yamaha helped Toyota build one of the most iconic car of Japanese automotive history.. you can call it , Japans's first ever super car.
Everyone knows about Toyota AE86...Not many know about Toyota 2000GT, Toyota model Code MF10.
The concept & design is not by Toyota but by Yamaha. Back in 1960's beside music instruments & motorcycles , Yamaha used to do a contracted projects for other companies.
Yamaha wanted to expand its portfolio, created a prototype named it as A550X. Yamaha was working with Nissan back then and offered the prototype, which at that time thought to be the future Nissan 240Z. Nothing went into production and Nissan canceled their commitment with Yamaha.
Yamaha started looking for another partner as they spent a lot of money and time designing the A550X. They went to Toyota. Toyota accepted the offer although many people at Toyota at that time were not happy with Toyota's investment into A550X.
Toyota took the project because , Yamaha suggested that they will built the car. After joining hands they made some modification to the prototype and here is when Toyota GT2000 was born.
Although the GT2000 is Toyota but there is more Yamaha in GT2000 than Toyota, because they were the one Initially designing its interior, exterior as well as the building the engine.
GT2000 is powered by a 2.0L Inline 6 , rear wheel drive. The engine block came from Toyota, but the piston, carburetors as well as engine head, all were hand made by Yamaha and assembled by Yamaha into GT2000. Redline @ 7000 rpm.
The engine was capable of 150hp while the sports version were tuned to 200hp. GT2000 was equipped with a 5 speed manual transmission which is basically a upgraded 4 speed transmission from one of Toyota pickup truck at that time.
GT2000 could hit 100 in 8.2 seconds and top speed of 218km/h. After production GT2000 competed in 72 hour endurance race with average speed of 207.21 km/hr. When the race was over GT2000 broke three word records while made 13 new records for speed and endurance.
It is equipped with disc brakes on all 4 wheels as well as independent suspension, both features first for Toyota. There is a limited slip differential and it is first for any car out of Japan.
The 45.7" tall , GT2000 aluminum body curves and cuts were so complex that no one in Japan could make it mechanically. So all body panels were hand made. It is believed that GT2000 took some design inspiration from Jaguar E type at that time, but GT2000 is exclusive in its own nature.
Yamaha used its craftsmanship of building high end hand made guitars and other musical instruments while building the interior of GT2000, Yamaha piano division worked exclusively on the interior.. Hand stitched leather seats and dashboard, and hand crafted interior panels are class of its own. The pop-up headlights are class of it's own and back then a very attractive feature.
Between 1967 till 1970, only 351 GT2000 were built. 337 were road legal while rest for track only racing. Out of total of these 351, 62 were left hand drive and were sold in US.
GT2000 list price was $7230 and at that time more expensive than Porsche 911 , Corvette and Jaguar E type.
GT2000 was slower than its rivals but it completely changed the face of Toyota around the world, that Toyota can make incredible vehicles.
There are not many cars from Japan that can be called as classic or collectors and the list is very short. GT2000 tops the list with most expensive Asian based car ever sold on auction. One such example was sold for 1.2 Million US dollars few years ago.
GT2000 was so famous when launched that it was filmed in 1967 James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice " as Bond's car.. The movie car was a convertible and believed to be one of only two ever produced.
Seeing is Believing... What you think guys ?
[This particular example as pictured was sold for $560,000]
