There were only 337 production examples of the Toyota 2000GT built. Now there’s one less. At about 9:00 am this morning in the Gokayama area of Toyama Prefecture, the classic flagship car passed under a 100-foot beech. Unfortunately, that’s the exact moment the tree came down.
まじか 2000gtが
#NHK pic.twitter.com/ZxasLydpiv
— 銀春子（隠れ銀八） (@toyodaginpachi) June 8, 2014
The unnamed 28-year-old driver from Nara Prefecture was taken to the hospital, but his injuries were limited to cuts on his arms and legs and are not life-threatening.
The same, tragically, could not be said for the car. The Pegasus White 2000GT appears to have been a particularly clean example, with original wheels and a nice exhaust.
The tree, which grew on a slope and extended over the road, was 6.2 feet in diameter at its thickest and had rotted from the inside. Apparently, local authorities had been warned that the tree was a danger. However, the surrounding area is a historic preservation site due to the gassho houses of the nearby villages, and cutting down the tree was prohibited. Now, in an effort to preserve one piece of Japanese history another has been destroyed.
Traffic on the road was closed for three hours as the tree and car were removed. NHK has a brief video about the incident.
Sadness.
モノホン2000GTグチャグチャとかどんなアクション映画でもみれねぇよ
これ本人相当キてるだろうなぁ pic.twitter.com/1FswXJL3Ht
— mirag (@mirag32) June 8, 2014
Photos courtesy of mirag, Wikipedia.
My Condolences.
sad moment, well one engine can save one thats not running, looks like it will make a good donor…
my heart broke when I saw the picture, this will make any toyotaku depressed.
Doesn’t look like those scratches will rub out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an attempt to rebuild it considering its value.
The boys at Gas Monkey Garage can fix it and then crap over it with thier sketchy modifications.
*pours one out *
Bad things always happen when hippies get involved (don’t hurt the rotting dangerous tree!!!)
Exactly. Freakin’ idiots. If they’d bother to inspect the tree, they probably would’ve seen how bad it was and just cut it down. Talk about bad timing; every time I think about it, I just cringe at how bad the timing was. Amazing.
Thing is they don’t bother to inspect it, or even if they do look at it, they don’t see rot and hazard, the just see a big old tree. They have no idea what they are talking about, and if you even make a case for why a tree is a hazard and needs to be removed, you just get shouted down as a stooge for the big greedy capitalists or whatever. These people are dangerously stupid, and they have a LOT of political power, especially at local levels. Doesn’t matter if the reason for their “activism” is environmental or “cultural heritage”, the result is the same. That’s how it is in the US, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Japan has the same idiocy.
However, this is like the one kind of situation where the US’s massive liability and litigation culture is useful. If a US municipality is warned that a tree is a hazardous danger, is doesn’t matter if there are 1000 greenpiece tards protesting cutting it. Because if the City knows that its an imminent danger and does nothing to solve it, they are in for some huge liability when the tree inevitably fails. It lights a fire under politicians and bureaucrats azzes.
So don’t slack off when voting day comes around. Primaries, too.
the government protected the tree,not hippies ya tripper
This could be repaired. It would take time, and a lot of heart, good tooling, and an excellent few tradesman (all of which I have access to) but well worth the effort.
Unfortunately I doubt I could afford the sum of good parts left in this so i could buy it, and salvage it.
Such a sad day for the old school jap enthusiasts.
So long as the frame is OK, I’m thinking we’ll see another 2000GT cabriolet on the road in 2 year’s time.
I was actually able to touch one of these cars yesterday, then this news today. It is so unfortunate.
Where was it?
I was actually sportscar shopping in San Diego. This dealer had one in the showroom among other cool exotics.
OT, but I ran into a red Bluebird SSS, RHD, on the freeway afterwards. We nodded. It too, was a cool car. I wonder if the guy’s on here.
Stupid environmentalists.
Same people who brought you the present California dustbowl that was a major farming area like, 3 short years ago.
I wasn’t going to say anything, because of today’s political climate/”sensitivities,” but I’d call that a seriously misguided attempt at “protecting history.”
Would they have cut the tree down if it threatened one of the houses?
I’ll grant that some of the houses are 400 years old, but having looked them up, one of them would be a whole lot easier to correctly rebuild than the car – and it wouldn’t be a million-dollar job. Well, being a government/UN project, it might be $100M, and take twelve years, if it EVER got done.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”-Slippy the frog
In all seriousness, trees taking out old Toyotas is getting really old! Over the last several years, I have had opportunities to buy 2 old Crowns, and a Corona MK2 that were suddenly wiped out by falling trees. One of our forum members lives just a couple miles away from me, with a Crown wagon, with a smashed front end from a tree falling on it. And I’ve seen a couple more old Yotas over the years online with tree damage. A weird plot from Nissan? Hhmmmmm………….
Well one of their cars is called the Leaf. Suspicious…
Just another reason to dislike trees.
Time for a new body, its been done before..!
http://www.studiotimecapsule.com/aluminum_fabrication
Glad to hear the driver is ok, the car is a proper mess!
The pix don’t look bad enough to warrant a whole new body, but the metal could have been in really bad shape that just didn’t show in them.
so sad 🙁 I really like this car
Hmmm, tube-frame it and build a SCCA replica?
After seeing how CMC restored the Lindner Nöcker Jaguar, anything is possible! Actually, the crumpled condition of the two cars is comparable.
This is absolutely horrible. That top photo makes me sick…
i wood knot pine over it
I think I’m going to be sick now. Excuse me…….*goes into restroom to regurgitate*
It will be Back. All Specialist are getting together to restore this 2000GT.
At least That is in Japan and still be loved from car enthusiast.
Not too late, Japanese God Hands are still a live .
This is a group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1401257063496746/
visit, join and cheer up !!!!
Looks like it was on loan to the Corvette Museum. Maybe GM would like to fix it with the other fallen.
Looks like it was on loan to the Corvette Museum. Maybe GM will fix it with the other fallen.