Shelby-Toyota ????

[wicked fast]

Found this while looking at GT40 stuff on ebay.

Did the old chicken farmer tune Toyotas
after the Cobras ????

Cheers,
Bill Cook

[computerworks]

Following his Riverside victory in 1966, Toyota offered Pete Brock the opportunity to race their recently announced 2000GT in SCCA racing. In the meantime, however, Carroll Shelby, who had recently lost his contract with Ford on the GT-40 work, opened a Toyota dealership in El Segundo. At the eleventh hour, the Toyota deal was pulled from Brock, and Shelby was handed the contract.

In 1968, the Shelby American-prepared Toyota 2000 GT was raced in selected SCCA National races. The Toyota 2000 program found tough competition from Porsche and Triumph

In that year, Carroll Shelby backed a two-driver 2000 GT team in the SCCA's C Production class, and racked up several wins and podium finishes in its single season as a serious competition effort. At the end of that season, Toyota pulled the plug on the program.
Between 1966 and 1968, 337 2000 GTs were built; reports indicate that between 50 and 65 of these were imported to the U.S.

[wicked fast]

Thanks Ron !!

Cheers,
Bill Cook

[Turk]

Does anyone know who the current owner of that Toyota dealership is?

TURK

[wicked fast]

if the drivers are still aorund ???

and where the cars ended up ??

Cheers,
Bill Cook

[btsai]

Turk -- I don't believe there is a Toyota dealership IN El Segundo now. I assume the franchise moved over the years. If you're referring to the one in El Monte, then it's Longo Toyota. Largest Toyota dealership in the country. No one else even comes close. Owned by none other than Roger Penske. I know a guy who used to work for him.

If it is a dealership that ended up moving to Van Nuys, I know that owner myself -- man named Howard Keyes.

Does that help?

Ben

[Cal Metal]

Phil Remington worked on this project before migrating over to Dan Gurney's AAR. Gurney eventually was awarded the contract with Toyota for the GTP series that ran for many years with Remington at the helm for fabrication. I will see if I can get Phil to answer some of your questions. I do have some photos of those cars when SAI was involved. Will have to dig them up.

The 2000 GT was sort of a non starter for Toyota. Interesting car but they never pushed it like Datsun did with the 240 Z. They command big dollars in the collector circles with prices north of $100,000.

[wicked fast]

Thanks Cal.
Any more info is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Bill Cook

[Cal Metal]

Just a little additional history. The cars were actually built by Yamaha. Pricing started at $7,000. The car was an inline 6 cylinder producting 200 h.p. The car weighed 2,500 pounds and used a five speed transmission. Times were pretty mediocre coming in at 15.9 for the quarter mile and 0-60 times at around 10 seconds. Lots of good suspension, though. All wheel independent with discs all the way around. Magnesium knock offs, too.

Originally, the design was created by Graf Goertz who was under contract to Datsun. He created the car design in '63 and, with the help of Yamaha, produced a running prototype. Datsun, for whatever reason, passed on the car and Yamaha pitched it to Toyota. The rest is history.

The convertible version of the car showed up in the Bond movie, "You Only Live Twice". Datsun was the ultimate winner in the category with the subsequent development of the 240Z, which sold a ton of cars at an affordable price, with performance that exceeded the 2000 GT.

[southernfriedcj]

It looks like a cross between a Ferrari Daytona, a Jag XKE, the aforementioned 240Z, the Daytona Coupe, and a few others that don't spring to mind.
I like it. It's got a good beat and you can dance to it.

[Turk]

btsai,
Since I know of no Toyota dealerships that went under in California, I can only assume Longo Toyota might have been the deakership Carrlol owned at one time. If that is the case I know all about that place.

I think it is the No:1 dealership for 26 years or something like that. It would be worth more than any Cobra operation. He should have kept it!


TURK

[hcollado]

Turk,

Been personnaly involved with Toyota (factory, not with a dealer) the dealership in question is definetaly Longo. As far as what it's worth, it's more money than Carol has ever dream of making. I would put a number around $20MM without any fixed assets.

If he only knew then.



Hector

[Turk]

Having watched what Blue Sky is being paid nowadays for Lexus and Toyota etc, in Califorrnia....I would say with the kind of numbers they are doing there, $20 Mil. may not even buy their used car operations. I am thinking a lot more.

Yup, Carroll would have done much better if he'd kept that one.

TURK

[Excaliber]

,,well Carrol should'a kept the Coupes to. But,,,hindsite is 20-20.

I remember whent the first Honda dealership came to my hometown in Oregon. Everyone was snickering at him and thinking he was a fool. He passed away some years ago, one of the wealthiest guys in the county! I used to work for him (motorcycles division mechanic) and was so embarrased by it all, I quit, lol.

Ernie

[Cal Metal]

A postscript to the 2000 GT racers. Talked with Rem this morning and he said that the biggest problem was with the engine. The stroke was just too long and they couldn't get any power out of the motor despite a major rework of the valve train. It had a DOHC arrangement but, in the final analysis, he said they couldn't compete with the 911 Porsche.

They lightened them with aluminum hoods/deck lid and modified about everything on the car including the gearbox, brakes and suspension. The project head was an engineer from Japan whose name Phil could not remember.

[Jamo]

One of my favorite cars from that era, especially because of the 007 connection. I recall the Shelby backing...saw the cars run at Riverside.

Brock didn't do too bad...went on to create BRE and campaigned 510s and 240Zs for several seasons...the 510s crapping all over 2002s and GTVs in the 2.5 TransAm series. I had a prepped 510 BRE in college (UC Riverside)...you could buy them direct from the dealership in Riverside: short springs, front and rear sway bars, headers, cam, weber, air dam, spoiler, mirrors, wheels,etc.etc....the good ol days.

The 2000 GT is a much smaller car than it looks. Big-assed Americans had trouble fitting in the coupes, compared to the convertables. Too good a car for the class, materials-wise...too expensive to build compared to the relatively inexpensive 240Z which had that Jaguar-like smooth straight six and great rear suspension, and which had an interior you could fit in.

Several running around Riverside in those days...they always had one headlamp cup partially flipped over. Still a problem for collectors to get just right due to difficulties in adjusting the stops (one shows at the Fresno State Concours regularly).

[PDHse]

Found this picture in one of my scrap books, i think its from Sports car graphic.Al Dowd is in the picture as well?

[Jamo]

BTW, as Cal points out, Yamaha has been involved with customized engine design and tuning for years. They assisted Honda with its Formula 1 efforts as well...sort of the Cosworth of Japan...

Remember the beautiful V6 SHO motor of the late 80s/early 90s? I used to run a metal Yamaha badge on the trunk lid of my SHO.

[Excaliber]

Hmmm,,,,,,I had no idea Yamaha was doing anything more than making motorcycle engines as far as that goes.

By the way, wasn't it "Mercury Marine" that developed the Vette ZR1 OHC engine? GM dealers were NOT allowed to do warranty engine work on the motor? As I recall it had to be shipped to some place? Seems to me it wasn't "that" much faster than the old 350 cid V8 from the "accelleration numbers" I saw. But it looked cool!

Ernie

[Mark IV]

was designed and developed by Lotus, then a GM company and built by Mercury Marine.

On one trip to the UK I met with two Lotus engineers who told the story of having the ZR1 motor done on paper and when the Chevy guys saw the plans they went nuts! They were ballistic because the blocks bore centers were not the same as a 350. The Lotus guys argued that it did not matter, the engine would not be produced on GM equipment and therefore the bigger bore centers helped cooling. The Chevy guys insisted that the engine share bore center dimensions with the "production" 350 so that thet could claim "a family resemblance". So Lotus had to re-engineer the block to make marketing happy and reduced the cooling capacity of the motor!

One more "Dilbert" manager proving the tail wags the dog....

BTW, the Toyota 2000 was a really neat car. Good friend of mine who worked for Toyota had the chance to ride in one a few years back. He says that there are still one or two owned by Toyota US and that a couple of delaers have cars they kept.

Rick