Yet Porsche continued to flourish, and with the much less expensive 240Z, Nissan apparently stole the ground prepared by Toyota. Toyota's partner, Yamaha, summed it up best: The "2000GT sent out the message that such a high-performance car would be made solely by Japanese hands, and brought new confidence to Japanese automakers that would inspire their eventual leap into world markets."
Between 1967 and 1970 Toyota built only 335 2000GT coupes and two "James Bond" roadsters for the movie "You Only Live Twice," of which a reported 62 cars, including nine single-cam models, came to the United States. With such low volume, and a price of almost $7,000 apiece, Toyota surely lost money on every 2000GT it made.
2000GT Goes Racing
Ink-gathering production models are one thing, but the old lure of race-on-Sunday, sell-on-Monday is strong. Pete Brock, who, while at Shelby American was responsible for design of the Cobra Coupe and the oft-imitated GT350 rocker panel stripe, saw an opportunity with the 2000GT. He was working for Hino Motors, a heavy truck company affiliated with Toyota, and he signed a contract with Toyota to develop the car for racing-he had considerable success racing a Hino sedan on the West Coast-and set up a shop and waited for the cars to arrive.
They didn't. Carroll Shelby, who had just acquired the Toyota distributorship for the southern United States, convinced Toyota that Brock was "just a guy who changes my tires." Shelby got the cars, and would represent Toyota in SCCA's competitive C-Production class. At the top ranks, the class was amateur in name only, manufacturers-namely Porsche and Triumph-pouring in support for the advertising potential that wins would bring.
Steamed, Brock arranged a deal with Nissan-which would pay off well in the long run-but Shelby had access to Toyota's deep pockets in what was described as "purely a short-term contract." Shelby American thoroughly prepared the 2000GT for racing-one development mule and two racers-and hired Scooter Patrick and Davey Jordan, two experienced production-class racers, to pilot them in selected SCCA National races. Race modified, the engine produced about 250 hp and every ounce of rosewood was removed. Though Patrick notched a win at Laguna Seca at the end of the 1968 season, at Riverside at the "Runoffs," as the SCCA's championship finale is called, Patrick managed no better than being the first non-Porsche.
And that was that. Toyota didn't renew the contract for 1969, nor did it exploit its second-place finish in advertising. It was an impressive accomplishment for the marque's-and model's-first year in U.S. racing, but race on Sunday, explain on Monday doesn't have quite the same ring.