1967 Toyota 2000 GT Coupe

To say it's difficult to conceive of a Ferrari-like Toyota is too often stated. It is easy to think of the automobile manufacturer as the maker of fine, but relatively sedate production cars. There have been glimpses of another side of the company, however, but this has always been veiled behind a lack of need to prove one's self. Though never really pushed to prove itself to the world, the 2000 GT would be Toyota's means of dabbling in a world for which it had been unknown and showing the world just what it could do if it wanted to.

There would be just a total of 351 examples ever built; and this from a company that builds Corollas at that rate nearly every hour! To think of Toyota, the gigantic automotive giant producing a run of less than 400 vehicles seems an utter waste of time. Never to be bullied, a short-run production sportscar just didn't seem to fit Toyota's ethos. But then again, maybe the car was exactly what Toyota needed.

The 2000GT would be what Japan needed. In a world today with body kits and high performance upgrades, it seems hard to imagine Japan without some kind of a sportscar, but that is exactly what the land of the rising sun was without, even as late as the 1960s. Companies, like Toyota, were beginning to make a name for themselves on the world stage building large numbers of smaller, efficient vehicles that would become world famous for their reliability and simplicity.

Toyota's image was the same as Japan's, at least as far as the rest of the world was concerned. The company decided it was time to shed this image of itself and the country. In cooperation with Yamaha, Toyota would propose to build a two-seater sports car.

Measuring just a little more than 45 inches in height, the 2000GT is about as classic a sportscar from the 1960s as one could find. Elegant, flowing lines, the pointed nose, laid-back interior and blunt tail, the 2000 GT could have just as easily been designed somewhere in Europe. Sporting such features as pop-up headlights and Plexiglas-covered headlights, the car boasted of a unique and iconic look that made it one of the most exciting at the time.

Making its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1965, the 2000 GT would receive rave reviews and would be widely held at the first instance of a Japanese supercar would ever be unveiled to the world.

Just a total of 351 examples of the 2000 GT would ever be built. Chassis MF10-10088 would be of an even fewer fleet. In all, just 62 examples of Toyota's supercar would ever be imported to the United States, and this meant a very few number of left-hand drive examples. 10088 is one such example.

Considered one of the best examples still in existence, 10088 would have just two owners over its lifetime and would spend most of that lifetime as part of a Toyota dealership in St. Louis. Sporting less than 50,000 miles, the 2000 GT would be restored by Maine Line Exotics and would actually be put up for bid on eBay in 2011.

Superb example of Toyota's image-shedding supercar, and a piece of Japanese history, 10088 certainly belongs in a worthy collection and would be deservedly rewarded at the 2014 Gooding & Company Pebble Beach auction when it sold for $1,155,000.

It would seem Toyota and Japan not only shed its stoic image in the classic car market; it would appear cars like the 2000 GT are going to be major players in the years to come. Toyota would not only introduce the supercar to Japan, it would seem its offering will introduce some competition to long-standing traditions in the classic car market as well.

By Jeremy McMullen