If you look back through Toyota’s history, a clear line of sports car heritage can be found. Many people believe it all begin with the 2000GT, however there is a lesser known car that paved away for the 2000GT and Toyota’s history in making fun fast sports cars – the Toyots Sports 800.
Toyota Sports 800 is Toyota Motor Corporation’s first production sports car and is affectionately known as the ‘Yota-hachi’ (short for Toyota 8) in Japan. The Sports 800 was based on the Toyota Publica and is a true “hero car” in Japan, where it is one of only two cars ever to be inducted into the Japanese Automotive Hall of Fame.
The car earned this honour both for its innovative design (which owes much to engineer Tetsuo Hasegawa’s aerospace background) and for its immediate success on the race track, where it went head-to-head with Honda’s high-revving S800s in the great Japanese endurance races of the day.
The Yota-hatchi featured in this weeks Petrolicious video is owned by Scott Sylvester and it’s clear that it is his pride and joy.
“A fan of small cars ever since he first bought a Fiat 600 as a teen, his garage is home to everything from a Bianchina to a BMW Isetta, with a Messerschmidt thrown in for good measure. When talk turns to the Sports 800, however, Sylvester gets an extra spark in his eye. The rarity, the history, the design, the lightweight quickness…Yota-hachi’s story caught his imagination years ago and hasn’t let go.”