--- title: Toyota · HICONIUM description: The car that proved Japan could build beauty — decades before the world noticed. canonical_url: https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/toyota image: https://hiconium.com/og/marque/toyota.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.com/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.com/) › [Manufacturers](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers) › Toyota > On this page: [The essential Toyotas](#the-essential-toyotas) · [Every Toyota on file](#every-toyota-on-file) · [2000GT](#2000gt) · [A mass-production company with a small, sharply defined collector canon.](#a-mass-production-company-with-a-small-sharply-defined-collector-canon) · [The logo that renamed the company.](#the-logo-that-renamed-the-company) ![Toyota — manufacturer stage](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/stage/toyota.jpg.w1920.q75.webp) [Manufacturers  /  Toyota](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers) # Toyota Toyota City, Japan · est. 1937 A mass-production company with a small, sharply defined collector canon. Toyota's central story is industrial scale and durable mass-market cars. Its collector market is narrower, led by the Toyota-Yamaha 2000GT; original specification separates the leading cars. Models 1 Top value €900k Period 1937– [Explore models](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/toyota#essential) [Manufacturer profile](https://hiconium.com/manufacturers/toyota#house-profile) ![Toyota — manufacturer stage](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/stage/toyota.jpg.w1920.q75.webp) Curated entry points ## The essential Toyotas Three cars that explain the manufacturer: its origins, its engineering peak and the shape of its modern ambition. [1967–1970 ### 2000GT Japan’s first supercar — 351 built with Yamaha’s twin-cam six. Collectibility 94 / 100 Indicative value €900k](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/toyota/2000gt) Complete catalogue ## Every Toyota on file 1 models · 1 families By family Sort ## 2000GT 1 The Yamaha-built twin-cam GT that founded Japanese car collecting — 351 examples, Bond provenance, record-setting pedigree. [1967–1970 · 3 variants 2000GT Japan’s first supercar — 351 built with Yamaha’s twin-cam six. €900k 24 sales · median $875.01K 94 Open the file](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/toyota/2000gt) The house ## A mass-production company with a small, sharply defined collector canon. In 1965 Toyota set out to prove Japan could build a world-class GT. With Yamaha engineering the twin-cam straight-six and crafting the rosewood dashboard, the 2000GT emerged in 1967 as Japan’s first supercar. It set FIA speed records, ran at Le Mans, and starred — roofless, because Sean Connery didn’t fit — in "You Only Live Twice". Just 351 were built, most in left-hand drive for an America that wasn’t ready. For decades it was a curiosity; now it is the cornerstone of Japanese car collecting, the first Japanese car to clear a million dollars at auction and the benchmark every JDM collectible is measured against. Founded 1937 Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. followed the Automotive Division established within Toyoda Automatic Loom Works in 1933. 2000GT output 337 road cars Toyota's Japanese corporate history counts 337; Toyota UK reports 351 in total, of which 337 were sold as road cars. 2000GT technical brief 2.0-litre DOHC six Toyota and Yamaha paired the straight-six with independent double-wishbone suspension, four-wheel disc brakes and a five-speed gearbox. Documented sale US$2.535m Gooding sold Toyota-Shelby chassis MF10-10001 at Amelia Island in 2022, then a public-auction record for the marque. Selected milestones ### A bloodline, not a list. 1. 1933 The Automotive Division opens Toyoda Automatic Loom Works creates a dedicated division to develop and manufacture motor vehicles. 2. 1937 Toyota Motor Co. is established The automotive operation becomes a separate company under the Toyota name. 3. 1955 The Crown enters production Toyota launches a passenger car developed and manufactured entirely with Japanese technology. 4. 1965 The 2000GT prototype is shown The Toyota-Yamaha sports-car programme reaches the public at the Tokyo Motor Show. 5. 1967 The 2000GT goes on sale Production begins in May, bringing a DOHC six, independent suspension and four-wheel disc brakes into Toyota's road-car catalogue. 6. 1997 Prius reaches series production Toyota launches the first mass-produced hybrid passenger car in Japan. 7. 2020 Heritage parts return Toyota adds the 2000GT to the GR Heritage Parts programme, reproducing transmission and differential components for owners. What defines Toyota ### Systemise production The Toyota Production System joins jidoka, which stops defects at source, with Just-in-Time flow. ### Put new systems into volume The Prius moved Toyota's hybrid system from development into mass production in 1997. ### Support cars after production The GR Heritage Parts programme reproduces selected factory components for cars including the 2000GT. The mark ## The logo that renamed the company. July 1936: the loom works’ young automobile department ran a public competition for a new mark, and 27,000 entries arrived from across Japan. The winner spelled the family name a new way — トヨタ, Toyota, not Toyoda: eight katakana strokes instead of ten, and eight is the lucky number. The company changed its name to match the logo. For half a century the katakana circle served Japan while plain wordmarks went abroad. The three ellipses came in October 1989, for the fiftieth anniversary: two hearts — the customer’s and the company’s — overlapping in a T, drawn so that every letter of TOYOTA can be traced inside the ovals. ![Toyota crest, 1935–1936](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/toyota/logo-1935.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1935–1936 The TOYODA diamond — the family name on the first trucks, gone within a year. ![Toyota crest, 1936–1989](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/toyota/logo-1936.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1936–1989 The contest winner: katakana in a circle, eight lucky strokes. 1958–1969 Serif TOYOTA for export — the wordmark that followed the Crown to America. ![Toyota crest, 1978–](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/marques/history/toyota/logo-1978.png.w1920.q75.webp) 1978– The red sans wordmark — it still rides beside the emblem today. 1989– The fiftieth-anniversary ellipses: every letter of TOYOTA hidden in three ovals.