If a tree falls on a Toyota 2000GT, will its high-winding Yamaha-built straight-six make a sound? In this case, we’re guessing not. In a freak accident, a rotting tree finally sloughed off its botanical coil and collapsed onto the million-dollar sports car. The tree formerly stood in the Gokoyaka area of Japan’s Toyoma Prefecture and was 6.2 feet wide at its thickest point, which we believe officially classifies it as a large honkin’ plant.
Thankfully, the car’s driver escaped with mere scrapes and bruises, which is impressive, given the utterly smooshed state of the automobile. The NHK has video of the aftermath.
By today’s sporting standards, the old Toyota is hardly quick. We clocked it to 60 in 8.2 seconds and through the quarter mile in 16.3 at 87 mph. The last Camry hybrid we tested blew through the quarter at 15.7 at 92 mph and took only 7.3 seconds to hit 60. But outright speed wasn’t the point. Neither was selling a bunch of them. Toyota only produced a reported 351 examples between 1967 and 1970.
The straight-six was a Far Eastern jewel, and the attention paid to the styling resulted in one of the loveliest shapes ever to see production. Sure, it owed a bit to the E-type, but the longnose cat’s hardly a bad car to have in one’s aesthetic gene pool. The 2000GT proved that Toyota, and by extension Japan, could build a beautiful, advanced thing just as well as anybody in the West. Although Honda’s CVCC set the car world on its ear during the Malaise Era, it could be argued that Japan’s automotive ascendancy began years before, when Toyota set the 2000GT program in motion.
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There’s often a bit of schadenfreude that comes along with the destruction of gaudy motor baubles like Aventadors and Veyrons. A mangled supercar is proof that the hyper-wealthy aren’t quite as competent as they think they are, that even the fortunate aren’t immune to stupidity and bad luck. But with this incident, it’s all schaden. We feel no freude in the least. Not one bisschen. Damn.
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