1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000 GT Set to be Most Expensive Toyota Ever Sold
This 2000 GT is an interesting footnote in Toyota history, and is all but certain to break sales records.
Recent years have seen prices for classic Toyota models like the Land Cruiser, MR2, AE86, and Supra climb steadily north. But when it comes to high-dollar Toyotas? It’s unlikely any vehicle will come anywhere near what auction house Gooding & Company estimates this 1967 2000 GT will fetch when it hits the block next month. Currently, the appraisers there are expecting this gorgeous machine to sell for between $2,750,000 and $3,500,000. So take that, Paul Walker’s MK IV.
Of course, this is no “ordinary” Toyota 2000 GT — if any examples of the breed can even be called that. This is the first production example built, and one of just three cars that Carroll Shelby prepped to run in the Sports Car Club of America’s C-Production racing class. So even if it didn’t dominate the competition like the famous Texan’s Mustang GT350s and Cobras did, that pedigree makes it a profoundly important example of an already exceptionally rare vehicle. Because during the 2000 GT’s three-year production run, only 351 were produced.
As it did with the LFA, Toyota reached out to Yamaha to help get the most out of the car’s engine, and after the wizards there had completed their handiwork, the 2.0-liter straight six was good for 150 horsepower. In race-spec, that figure was bumped to 210 horsepower, and ace pilots like Scooter Patrick and Dave Jordan that power helped propel this 2000 GT to fourth in the overall standings. Along the way, it also took home four first-place, eight second-place, and six third-place finishes.
After Toyota pulled the plug on its SCCA program at the end of the 1968 season, this 2000 GT was initially used as a demonstration car, before sitting idle for more than ten years. Fortunately, , a collector purchased the car in 1980, and set about returning it to its former glory. As the car was painted multiple times over the course of its life, during the frame-off restoration, painstaking care was taken to remove the paint in layers, and preserve as much of the original livery as possible. Pretty cool, right? For more information on this interesting footnote in Toyota history, check out the description on Gooding & Company.
Photos: Gooding & Company