Miguel Sánchez
With more than five kilometers of track, the Suzuka Circuit is one of the most important in the world. Created in 1962 as a Honda track test, this track has witnessed F1 but also the Japanese Touring Car Championship or the Suzuka 1000 Kilometers. Two of the fundamental tests for the development of motorsports in Japan, essential to understand the history of Datsun, Honda or Toyota. Brands that since the economic expansion of the sixties have not only focused on massive utility vehicles, but also on well-tuned sports cars capable of measuring themselves against Europeans and Americans.
In fact, in not a few cases the behavior and consumption of the Japanese has been truly amazing. Always with a mixture of stiffness and low weight capable of overcoming the power of engines with pleasure to turn upwards. In that sense, one of the best examples was during the Suzuka 500 Kilometers in 1966. One of the first tests in which the new Toyota Sports 800 was measured against the Datsun Fairlady 1600 or the Honda S600. Two small sports cars with inline four-cylinder engines put in check by Toyota's 2U twin-cylinder ingenuity. Of course, propelling the only 580 kilos of the Sports 800.
Data that allowed him to mark consumption of 3 liters per 100 for suspicion of the commissioners of the race. Convinced of the installation of a hidden gas tank thanks to which they did not need to stop as much as their competitors. Thus, the organization stopped the Toyota Sports 800 after lap 84 to inspect it calmly. After that they found nothing suspicious. Simply the result of the audacity demonstrated by Toyota's engineers. Which created with this model not only their first serial sports car, but also the definition of what the design of the following ones would be.
TOYOTA SPORTS 800. THE TRIUMPH OF LIGHTNESS
Given the choice of the most significant Japanese sports car, we could spend hours debating about it. However, the truth is that regarding which one showed the development of the Japanese industry there is no doubt: the Toyota 2000 GT. A sensational vehicle that put Japan on the supercar map, combining great handling with the power and joy of its six-cylinder in-line. A way of doing the things that he had already had his rehearsal two years earlier -in 1965- with the Toyota Sports 800. And that mechanically they do not have much to do, although they do in terms of achieving good results without starting from excessive power.
For this, everything is put in the hands of two characteristics. The first is weight. Something that looks very good in the concise Toyota Sports 800, being exactly 100 kilos lighter than the Lotus Elan. A 1962 sports car that Colin Chapman was especially proud of when it came to his obsessive improvement in power-to-weight ratio. What's more, the wheelbase of only two meters ensured effective cornering behavior. Regarding the second characteristic, everything has to do with how well the engine is tuned to work at high compression rates.
In this way, the precision of adjustments in the 2U engine gave 45CV reaching in competition units until the 70's. More than enough to move the Toyota Sports 800 with joy, which even with its 789cc two-cylinder flat engine it was able to measure itself with much more powerful sports cars. Without a doubt one of the most ingenious sports designs of the sixties, which reminds us of what Abarth did with the FIAT 600 because elements from popular cars are also used as a base. And, although the Sports 800 was the first serial sports car made by Toyota, its engine block is the same that powered the Compact Publica P10.
WAKU DOKI OR THE THRILL OF DRIVING
Even at the risk of losing impartiality, we will say that Japanese motorsport has the virtue of putting its advanced technology at the service of sensations. Thus, even in popular sports cars like the Mazda MX5 you can find a lively and vibrant response responsible for seducing you from the first corner. In Mazda's case this is called Jinba Ittai. Alluding to the old principle of chivalry by which rider and mount had to be one. A brand philosophy related to that of Honda, although in this case those from Tokyo prefer to call it Waku Doki. Another term from traditional Japanese culture, which serves to designate the emotion produced by a state of effervescence.
Or what is the same, the appearance of adrenaline when the engine turns up. A mixture of joy and emotion that has been the objective pursued in Toyota sports cars since the Sports 800. Achieved in this case with the lightness and mechanical adjustments that we mentioned before, but also complemented by a good aerodynamic design. Molded by Tatsuo Hasegawa and equipped with an ingenious removable roof panel devised months before the introduction of the first 911 Targa in 1965. Another of the seductive attributes of the Toyota Sports 800.
A car where efficiency reaches unsuspected limits thanks to the application of such ingenious but striking solutions that made this car a model only marketed in Japan. Something that may come from the insecurity that Japanese brands had at that time when distributing in the West. But which was also influenced by specific to the market niche the Sports 800 was targeting. A situation similar to that experienced in 1991 by the Honda beat. Undoubtedly one of the models that, even decades later, still owed much to the path opened by Toyota in the world of Kei Cars with sporting airs.
Images: Garagisti / Toyota
P.D. The unit used to illustrate this article has already appeared in other La Escudería publications. Specifically in the report on the Porto Fair 2021 with photographs by Sergio Calleja. It is currently for sale in Garagisti -Lisbon-, being a strange piece for connoisseurs even more within the European market. Recall that the Toyoya Sports 800 only made a little more than 3.000 units mainly destined for its domestic market.
