by Mike –
The Toyota 2000GT was Toyota’s, and Japan’s, first grand touring car and first super car.
First shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1965, the 2000GT was produced for Toyota by Yamaha between 1967 and 1970. It was well received by the press, and the public and today is highly collectable.
Rare
Toyota 2000GTs are rare because only 354 were made between 1967 and 1970, this includes three made for Carroll Shelby to race in SCCA races.
The body is made of steel the headlights are pop-up and there are plexiglas covered driving lights on either side of the grille.
Toyota 2000GT Engine
The engine is a 2-liter straight-6 based on the engine for the Toyota Crown sedan. Yamaha reworked the engine into a double overhead camshaft 150 hp GT engine. A later model had a 2.3-liter engine. The transmission is a manual 5-speed and this Toyota could reach 135-140 MPH. All four wheels had power-assisted disc brakes.
Bond, James Bond
The 2000GT was in the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice, as a convertible because Sean Connery could not fit into the coupe. The two cars used in the movie were not actually convertibles because they did not have a top but were made to look like they had a convertible top in the down position.
A Photograph of Sean Connery With One Of The Two 2000GTs Used In You Only Live Twice
Toyota 2000GTs Are Valuable
Today the Toyota 2000GT is a rare car especially a left hand drive model because they only made 75. They are probably the first, and certainly the most desirable, Japanese collector car, which means they are expensive.
In 2013 a Toyota 2000GT sold for nearly $1.2 million.
The latest issue of the Hagerty Price Guide lists a condition 2 2000GT at between $739,000 and $825,000 depending on the model.
Yamaha made all of the 2000GTs. Why do you think that Toyota needed the help of Yamaha to make their first GT car?
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
The first Japanese super car – Toyota 2000GT
This was originally posted in April 2015.
Yamaha was first contacted by Nissan to produce a limited production sports car. As the vehicle progressed, Nissan decline to go any further and Yamaha contacted Toyota and they agreed to finish the project. Yamaha has been producing high performance cylinder heads for Toyota ever since. The 3M 2 liter block was form a Corona Deluxe, 9 of the 2000GTs were made with a 3M SOHC engine. The exact numbers on these cars are all over the place. My understanding is 50 to 60 left hand drive cars made it to the United States. Yes Carroll Shelby did produce a couple of race cars, and according to legend, Shelby was offered Gulf States Toyota Distributors and was told by his friend Lee Iacocca not to mess with those cheap Japanese cars.
I’ve repaired a few these and they are very nice.
Shelby & Iacocca (Invented the Mustang) should have known better. Don’t get me wrong, I have high respect for both gentlemen. I am not a really good car guy, when it comes to design, but I can see that this car, 2000 GT is so gorgeous & it is a car ahead of it’s time.
Around ’70-’72 I thought I saw two racing 2000GTs behind a gas station in Torrance. I didn’t stop to see them, though they looked derelict, because I thought they’d be stripped of engines, etc. More fool me.
The record keeping on the total number produced is pretty sloppy. I have seen the numbers 341, 343, 347, and 354. Despite the bad records, this is an amazing car that will only continue to appreciate in value. God knows what they will sell for in 10 years. Glenn in the Bronx, NY.
I remember seeing one in the Toyota dealership in San Rafael, CA back in the 1970’s. It was only around $6,000 then! ? Of course, $6,000 at that time for me was a king’s ransom! I thought is was a beautiful car then as I do now.
1976 a beautiful white one shared my garage on California Street in San Francisco, for sale for $11,000.00. Sure it was overpriced i only had $7,000.00. I went next door to get my friend Joe Ishazaki, perhaps he would lend me the difference or offer me his advice. We stood firm at 7, after all, my wealthy Japanese friend said so.
Ah, once again I had a fine rationale. . . Joe said it will never be worth more and so like the rocket scientist I’m not, I passed up yet another one!!!
The reason both the 240Z Nissan and the Toyota 2000 GT have all the same body lines, lamp details, etc., is that both were designed by Albrecht Goertz, German-born American industrial designer.
You are correct Robert and Goertz also was part of the design team at Datsun when he taught the Japanese how to mock up a one piece clay model for the csp311 Nissan Silvia . Datsun had a fallout with Yamaha who were supposed to build a twin cam version of the R series 1600 engine for the Silvia . Only 544 examples of this Silvia were produced by the hand formed process and I owned one for 25 years . They are now worth about 1/30th the value of a 2000GT probably because of their underpowered engine . Not quite as pretty as the Toyota , but still a timeless design .