Toyota collaborated with Yamaha on the 2000GT sports car. The partnership began after Yamaha’s own sports-car project and an earlier proposal to Nissan failed to reach production. Toyota adopted the concept as a way to build a prestigious grand tourer and strengthen its image beyond practical family cars.
Yamaha contributed extensive engineering work, including the double-overhead-camshaft cylinder head for Toyota’s 2.0-liter straight-six engine. The resulting 3M engine used three Mikuni-Solex twin-choke carburetors and produced 150 PS. Yamaha also manufactured the production cars under contract at its Iwata facility.
The 2000GT debuted publicly at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show and entered production in 1967. Only about 351 examples were built through 1970, making it exceptionally rare. It is sometimes confused with later Toyota performance models, but neither Subaru, Daihatsu nor Hino was the partner in this project. The car’s independent suspension, four-wheel disc brakes and elegant fastback design helped establish Japan as a credible maker of world-class sports cars.