It’s not Friday yet but in honor of known motorfan Akio Toyoda’s ascension to the top spot at Toyota, here’s a two-part video about the company’s motorsports history. Based on the intro with WRC ST185 and Ironman Stewart pickups, it looks like this video was made in the early 90s. But soon it delves into a brief history of the automobile itself, starting with the Benz trike and the 1907 Takuri.

From there goes on to talk about motorsports with early footage from Indianapolis, Daytona Beach and a 1936 Japanese auto race that even gives a shout out to then-18-year-old Soichiro Honda and his first race car.

From there, we get to see the Toyota AA racing a steam engine, a 1956 Toyopet Crown on a London-to-Tokyo 50,000km drive, and some fantastic footage of a 1957 Crown on the Mobilgas Rally around the Australian continent.

Part 2 after the jump. (more…)

Before the Toyota Starlet became a hot RWD hatchback, it was part of the Publica line, chassis code KP40, like the Celica Supra. Before that, there was this, the KP30 Publica Coupe, sold as simply the 1000 in Europe.

(more…)

If you happened to see a blue Cressida wagon and blue AE86 pulled over on the 710 by the California Highway Patrol on the way to Toyotafest last Saturday, that was yours truly at JNC. We were running late and, shall we say, briskly, but an irate Officer Poncharello thought we were street racing. Somehow, we were able to convince him we weren’t and made it to the show to take the photos in this gallery. Unfortunately, each of us still got one of these: (more…)