With all these wet weekends, weekdays, bank holidays we’ve been having, it has been the perfect springtime for catching up with old movies. And, watching a bit of Sean Connery action the other day with my nine year old son, I was inspired to have another look into the Japanese classic that is Toyota’s 2000 GT.
Forming probably the most exciting sequence in the first half of the Bond movie, the 2000 GT captured the boy’s imagination – just as it had done when it had been released at the Tokyo show of 1965. Its probably fair to say that this collaboration with Yamaha resulted in a Toyota that changed perceptions of the Japanese car industry forever.
The 2 litre straight six punched nice and lively (as you can see in the sequence below), and the rear wheel drive format with popups, plexiglass and carnal, flowing lines, recall the best of the decade’s design. Funnily enough something about them reminds us of Hondas sadly discontinued sportster the S2000.
The Honda may come from another time and another place but a very Japanese spirit of fun is encoded in both cars DNA – and of course the format itself remains consistent across the four decades that separate them.
The Toyota commands silly money these days – whereas you can pick up an S2000 for a song. Perfect fuel, then, for a wet weekend’s automotive fantasy. And you don’t need a murderous femme fatale to complete the picture as far as we’re concerned…
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