by Mike –
From the Japanese Nostalgic Car web site,
There were only 337 production examples of the Toyota 2000GT built. Now there’s one less. At about 9:00 am this morning in the Gokayama area of Toyama Prefecture, the classic flagship car passed under a 100-foot beech. Unfortunately, that’s the exact moment the tree came down.
Photo by mirag on Twitter.
That is painful to look at. At least the driver was not seriously hurt. I hope his insurance was up to date.
Below is an uncrushed Toyota 2000GT (photos by Mike Gulett)
Summary
Article Name
With Perfect Timing A Toyota 2000GT Is Crushed By A Tree
Description
A rare Toyota 2000GT is crushed by a tree in Japan.
Author
Mike Gulett
Why would you say one less? The car still exists, and as you’ve shown several times here, people can restore anything. With the value of these cars approaching a million dollars I have no doubt it will be back one day. It ‘s likely the most desirable Japanese model ever made.
Hope no one desides to remove the tree bark from the interior or clean it – that could affect the resale value ))
I know its tragic, but with all the attention on man-made patina I couldn’t help myself.
Life is a beech !
In 1989, I was in the Sindelfingen (Gull Wing) Mercedes Benz plant for a tour. I walked past a shelf that contained chunks of exotic wood from all over the world. There were efforts to keep the burl and other pieces moist while in storage. I asked about it and was told that it was going to be sliced up to be used as dash board appliques. Cool stuff. That’s what that car killing psychopath tree deserves!!!
Hi Mike, I`m Maximo from Argentina, this is my first intervention in My Car Quest.
Can someone tell me who is (… or was …) the designer of 2000 GT?
Maximo,
Read more here: https://mycarquest.com/2013/01/toyota-and-yamaha-build-a-great-gt-car-the-first-japanese-super-car.html
The German-American designer Albrecht Goertz, a protégé of Raymond Loewy, gets credit by many for inspiring the styling but the final design was done by a Toyota stylists, Satoru Nozaki.
Yamaha gets a lot of the credit for engineering and manufacturing the 2000GT for Toyota.
Well now the roof is off it would be the perfect time to create a roadster from what’s left, just like the You Only Live Twice James Bond car!
I can feel the owners pain on this one. Unfortunately if you drive you car this is the risk you have to take to really enjoy driving something that was built to be driven.
That car can still be saved and most likely will be. Have to keep an eye out for its reappearance.
Don,
You would know better than most of us.
I suspect this car will be revived.