After thoroughly restoring two iconic Nissans, the restoration pit at the Toyota’s MegaWeb showroom in Tokyo has finally taken in a car from the home team. The car in question is an 1981 Toyota Soarer 2800GT, resplendent in a two-tone gold over brown. However, the car isn’t undergoing a full restoration at the hands of Toyota’s expert technicians. It’s really more of a pit stop.
According to Toyota, the MZ11 Soarer was experiencing a fuel issue with the luxury coupe’s straight-six. They didn’t say what the culprit was, but we wouldn’t be surprised to find a less-than-smooth petrol delivery in a car that spends most of its life sitting in a museum.
The 5M-GE motor is essentially identical to the one you might find in a Toyota US-spec Cressida or Celica Supra, minus a bunch of emissions equipment and associated vacuum lines. After spending a few weeks in the pit, the technicians were able to fix the problem and send the MZ11 back on its way.
Upon finishing, the technicians gave the engine a little rev. The digital dash looks quite similar to that of an X60 Cressida’s, just with the fuel and temperature gauges moved around. As it revved, the techs commented on how responsive the “piro piro” was. That’s Japanese for a party favor noisemaker blower, a reference to the digital tachometer’s light bar’s extension and retraction movement.
The technicians at MegaWeb have been busy with nut-and-bolt restorations of an R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R and a 510 Nissan Bluebird SSS Coupé. Perhaps the message here is that Toyotas don’t need as much fixin’ as those darn Nissans from down the street in Yokohama (we kid, we kid). Once the Soarer left, work continued on its garage-mate 1959 Cadillac, while a 1957 Volkswagen Beetle soon took its place.
Images courtesy of Toyota.
That ’59 Cadiklac defines the meaning of Tail Fin !
So that “Soarer” is a Cressida coupe.
Be nice to get a hold of one and then swap a Cressida front end and interior into it to convert it to left hand drive.
That is unless Toyota made any of them LHD.
The Soarer was a coupe version of the Supra so the dash from a LHD Supra might fit better and change the headlights too.
??? A coupe version of the Supra?
The Supra is a 2 door “coupe”.
The Soarer is NOT a couple version of the supra. The Soarer and the Supra share a lot of drive train parts. But thats about it. Here in the states the versions of them where the Lexus SC300, SC400, and the SC450. I have a 1989 Soarer MZ20 and this model came with a 7m-gte which is shared with Supra of the same year. The easiest way you can describe a Soarer would be a luxury Supra. Had certain amenities and a certain look a Supra didn’t have. Also the mz10 all the way to the mz21 models where only offered as RHD.
Exactly.
It is obvious from the original photo the Soarer coupe is a Cressida with 2 doors. Something that never made it to the states.
That was why I questioned legacy’s claim it was a Supra.
Note the Mercedes-Benz 450SLC-style rear quarter window louvers…
Interesting story, Toyota brought a Soarer to the US in the late 80s gauging interest if it could become a Lexus, and even though it was popular in Japan, American tastes found it underwhelming. (Like Nissan turning the F31 Leopard into the M30)
So then Toyota decided on a total redesign and it became the Lexus SC/Toyota Z30 Soarer
This car was parked on the ground floor of the now closed Ikebukro show room back in the mid 2000’s. I always made a point of going there on my trips to Tokyo.