JNC Contest: 1965 Toyota EX Dream Car
Last week’s contest in honor of the Tokyo Motor Show was a tough one. We got a lot of submissions but only one person got it right. Unprecedented!
That person was Mike F. (aka toyotageek), who correctly identified the car as the 1965 Toyota EX Dream Car shown at the 12th Tokyo Motor Show. We mentioned that it was never built because it only ever existed as a 1/2 scale model, about two meters long. It was purely a styling exercise.
Many of you were thrown off by what appears to be a photo of a Datsun Fairlady Roadster on the wall behind the car. That gave us momentary doubts as well, but true Toyotaku never waver and we have no explanation for the photos.
You have lived up to your screen name, Mike! However, toyotageek has graciously passed the Wonda Choro-Q KPGC10 Nissan Skyline GT-R prize onto the contestant with the next closest guess, Tommy J. Congrats!
If you’re bummed, there’s still three days left to enter the Import Bible T-Shirt Contest. Good luck!
[Image: Koyapop]
November 9th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Ah, interesting. The Fairlady threw me off as well- what ESPECIALLY did was seeing it on a Nissan website simply describing it as “1966 Concept”.
http://www.conceptnissan.com/pre-1970.shtml
Unfortunately, when you click on it, it comes up with a dead link, but that REALLY looks like the same car/model.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:53 am
toyotageek really does know everything! I don’t think he’s from this planet!
@Bob-that is the same car, I wonder what it’s doing on a website for Nissan?
November 9th, 2009 at 6:55 am
If you look at the picture, above what looks like a Datsun roadster, is what looks like an MS50 Crown. That one really threw me off.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I don’t think it was actually named, it was just a concept, some sites call it the Dream. I’ve never seen it called an EX though, EX-1 and EX-III are different concepts.
http://www.carstyling.ru/en/cars.1969_Toyota_EX-1.html
November 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I have a book (“The Complete History of the Japanese Car”, by Marco Ruiz (1988)) that identifies this car as a Nissan. No further details, although it is presented in the same context as the Toyota EX-I and EX-III, as well as the Mazda RX-500. I am still not convinced that this was a Toyota and not a Nissan.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:13 am
One True Toyota Geek Indeed!!!! Congrats Mike!
November 9th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Ryan – I know of that book and there appears to be some conflicting information. However, I’m deferring to the book Japanese Show Cars – Tokyo Motor Show, 1954-1969 (put together by Japan’s Car Graphic magazine) that identifies the car as a Toyota EX. That, plus Koyapop images (as captioned by the photographer himself in 1968) leads me to go with Toyota.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Congrats Mike! Even you passed the prize to me(for which I am extremely grateful) , you are still the real winner.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Fair enough… That Show Cars book sounds cool. Is it in English or Japanese?
November 9th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Ryan – both!
November 9th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
@Ben- How do you guys find all this stuff?
November 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hey, what did I miss? LOL
Truth be told, I don’t know that much. I just have a lot of resources at hand. I have to give credit where credit is due, and my source for the answer came from the book that Ben mentioned: Japanese Show Cars – Tokyo Motor Show, 1954-1959. Another book that had one picture was Masao Morimoto’s ‘My Years with Toyota’s Design 1940-1973′ No name is given to the car, other than the photo caption which reads ‘Model of Dream Car’.
I’d be lost without my books!
November 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
BTW, Congrats to Tommy!
It was cool to see that even Nostalgic Concept cars have fan boys! LOL
November 9th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Bert – Like Mike said, just collected photos and reading material over the years. Oh, and talking with other enthusiasts, of course! Perfect example – I didn’t know about the Morimoto book until MIke mentioned it just now, and I’m sure he has much more Toyota material.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
And now we know the true identity of the Cumberland Spaceman: it’s Toyotageek, traveling through time and space to answer the most obscure of Toyota arcana!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solway_Firth_Spaceman
November 9th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
LOL @ Lincoln Stax with the obscure paranormal phenomenon reference!
November 10th, 2009 at 12:30 am
they should build it now. I would totally drive that.
and nice little 1.5 liter Subaru boxer would fit nicely behind the front axle line.
(I know I probably shouldn’t have gone there… Flame away, boys! haha)
November 10th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Yes, it’s true, now it can be told – I am the Cumberland Spaceman. Traveling the vastness of the universe in my Toyota EXS-MkIII chrono-suit. Watch for me in other photos…
November 18th, 2009 at 2:00 am
The design of that car is really very odd. It seems to be a two seater car. Great Mike for identifing the pics.