Toyota showcases classic Supra, Subaru, Mazda and more at Tokyo Auto Salon

Toyota brought a bevy of classics to the Tokyo Auto Salon. It’s not the typical venue for such machinery, but Toyota’s presence was big and a lot of cars where shoved under the Gazoo Racing banner. What’s perhaps even more bizarre though is the fact that many of these classics weren’t even Toyota cars.

The most striking car among them was an A80 Supra finished in what would be a resplendent shade of Royal Sapphire Pearl if it wasn’t for all the battle scars on the nose. Normally it wouldn’t behoove Toyota to display such an imperfect car, but the patina on this particular car was well earned. This Supra was the training car that Akio Toyoda himself drove as he began moonlighting as a race car driver.

Under the tutelage of the great Nürburgring meister Hiromu Naruse, the future CEO learned how to hoof a Supra around the Green Hell. As the story goes Naruse kind of put Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder, in his place by suggesting that you can’t really make and sell cars if you don’t know how to drive them. Toyoda took that to heart and began to learn racing.

However, because it would be unbecoming of the scion, groomed from childhood to become president, to tackle such a risky undertaking, it was all kept hush-hush. After training in the Supra, Toyoda competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hours several times but it was a guerilla-style effort staffed with employee volunteers with no official Toyota branding. Thus the first cars, a pair of Toyota Altezzas, entered the enduro under the Gazoo Racing banner, named after Akio’s pet project, and the Toyoda himself adopted the Morizo pseudonym.

Eventually the Altezzas were replaced with the then-new Lexus V10 supercar. From there it became quite obvious that this was a factory effort, cause who else would have access to a pair of LFAs? Toyoda earned continued to race and when he ascended to the top job, he had earned his unofficial title of world’s biggest petrolhead CEO.

Today Chariman Toyoda’s nickname is well known and is often used in Toyota’s marketing. In another corner of the company’s massive Auto Salon booth was the Morizo Garage, a fleet of classics from the Showa Era. Not all Toyotas, they’re billed as cars that Akio Toyoda remembers fondly while walking down city streets as a child which he always wanted to own. Well, now he kind of does, indirectly, because they’re likely on loan from the Toyota Automobile Museum.

A 1966 E10 Corolla was even displayed with a cardboard cutout of a young Akio Toyoda standing proudly next to it. How cool would it be as a kid to see your name on a car? The Daihatsu Midget, like this 1962 model, was a hugely popular three-wheeled truck of the time. It makes sense that a Daihatsu would be part of the exhibit since it’s long been a subsidiary of Toyota, but what about the others?

The Subaru 360, represented by a 1967 model, and Mazda R360, represented by a 1960 model, were iconic kei cars of the period, but clearly not Toyotas. Well, Toyota has been aligning itself with Subaru and Mazda lately, and given the looming Honda-Nissan merger it seems more relevant than ever.

Toyota owns about 20 percent of Subaru and 5 percent of Mazda, so it’s not quite the same as a merged company. However, they’ve clearly defined the different types of engines each company will be working on and it makes a lot of sense. Battle lines are being drawn, and the kei cars put a cute face on the coming showdown. Looking a bit more menacing was a mid-engined GR Yaris concept. Your move, Honda-Nissan.

Toyota wasn’t done with the classics yet. In yet another section devoted to off-roading, they displayed a Toyota BJ, the proto-Land Cruiser. Flanking it was a new J70, still going strong after 40 years of production, and a J300 in Dakar Rally spec.

It was a massive display with plenty to see, unmatched in scope by any other carmakers. If things continue to escalate this way, perhaps someday there will be just two gargantuan booths, one for Toyota-Subaru-Mazda-Suzuki and one for Honda-Nissan-Mitsubishi, cars positioned the like the Sharks and the Jets.

Photos courtesy of Toyota.
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8 Responses to Toyota showcases classic Supra, Subaru, Mazda and more at Tokyo Auto Salon

  1. Bryan Kitsune says:

    Once again I’m obliged to say, Morizo-san makes me proud to be a Toyota fan.

    I hope he continues to have influence within the company for many years to come.

  2. I hope that in the future, Toyota could try on buying shares in Stellantis – which was established from a merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Peugeot Citroen – and therefore they (Toyota) could showcase products from the European carmaking concern from past to present like those from Fiat (131, Uno, Coupe), Lancia (Delta), Alfa Romeo (155, GTV, 156), Peugeot (205 T16, 206 WRC, 3008 DKR) and Citroen (ZX Dakar racer, C4, DS3 and C3 World Rally cars) while Toyota could display them in its museum in Japan.

    Curiously, Toyota already has a long-standing alliance with Stellantis but it is exclusive to Europe, so given that Toyota is known in Europe for being a manufacturer of bland-looking cars means it would be a good idea to see a Yaris GR being co-developed alongside Stellantis, with the base Yaris being based instead on a Peugeot 2008 platform married with powertrains from Toyota. (Looks like Sebastien Ogier would be proud of that.)

    • Shinichiro says:

      This doesn’t make any sense at all. Why would Toyota need to buy shares from Stellantis this just to display some cars at a motor show ?!? Toyota already has a wide selection of models from other manufacturers (US, Euro, Japan) in it’s Museum already (they were even there at the defunct History Garage in Odaiba), while not having a single alliance or relationship with them.
      Stellantis and Toyota’s “alliance” you mention is solely focused on commercial (light and medium duty) vehicles for the European market, no general public vehicle is concerned, even though there was a wider joint venture between PSA and Toyota 15 years ago (with the Aygo).
      Fortunately, Toyota are clever and they know that the best thing to do is to stay away from the brand graveyard that Stellantis has become.

      • … Well, maybe its because half of the automotive industry these days have already been outpaced by China as only few in other parts of the world have noticed it, anyway people elsewhere overseas not only see Toyota for having a completely boring lineup – as mentioned above, but also given how they (Toyota) faced product recalls ever since 15 years ago (2010) may suggest that not just they (Toyota) would end up rebuilding its existing models (Yaris, Corolla) with help from other carmakers, and its not just the Chinese (they have tonnes of car manufacturers as most of them make EVs today) are laughing at it – look at how Toyota, Stellantis and others have pulled out of the Russian market in 2022.

        And as a result, Russian carmakers like AvtoVAZ aka Lada, GAZ etc have committed themselves to gain advantage from those marques that already departed Russia 3 years ago, no wonder if Peugeot-based Toyotas would have the reliability (I mean build quality) of Ladas that have been best sellers in Russia and the former USSR/Soviet Union. (In case if you don’t know, the Zhiguli was based on a RWD Fiat 124, whereas the latter have had been a success in Egypt under the Nasr name.)

  3. Franxou says:

    It is nice to see Toyota celebrating not only its history, but that of an era without turning a blind eye to the other manufacturers. But as mentionned in the article, it might be because of the alliance… I hope we will not come to an era of just a couple carmakers and multiple brands!
    And the mid-engined GR Yaris, it must be awd, but I still feel it would be a great heir to the Renault madness, with the 5 Turbo and the Clio V6! Apparently they are a hoot to drive, but a handful, with such a short wheelbase! But the strongest engine in a shoe-sized car, how can one resist!

  4. Bryan Kitsune says:

    There’s a Toyota Times video on YouTube with their coverage.

    In relation to the midship GR Yaris, they bring up both the Celica & MR2. I can’t imagine they would make a mid-engine Celica, but I suppose they namedrop them both as perhaps they would both use the engine that is being featured in the GR Yaris M Concept?

    Either way, Toyota isn’t shying away from mentioning them in their own coverage. Hopefully it’s a sign that if either or both *actually* make a comeback, they will still be ICE.

  5. – “In relation to the midship GR Yaris, they bring up both the Celica & MR2. I can’t imagine they would make a mid-engine Celica, but I suppose they namedrop them both as perhaps they would both use the engine that is being featured in the GR Yaris M Concept?”

    “Either way, Toyota isn’t shying away from mentioning them in their own coverage. Hopefully it’s a sign that if either or both ‘actually’ make a comeback, they will still be ICE.” –

    Well, in regards of a revival of the MR2, I think as given that Toyota have had already did work with BMW for the Supra that’s currently on sale, then since having said that Toyota already has a recurring alliance with Stellantis (which is only for Europe courtesy of the Toyota ProAce) I think Toyota would attempt to rebadge and thus rengineer the Maserati MC20 to which the latter is already used as a basis for the resurrected Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale – both Italian sports cars are powered by a V6 engine and in case if you don’t know that the Lotus Evora was powered by a Toyota V6 that the US and Canadian market knows as the engine that powers the Camry, Highlander (Kluger in Australia), Lexus NX etc.

    In fact, Lotus had history with Toyota just as the latter had its automatic transmissions being used by Volvo for its cars especially today, as with the Alfa and Maserati sports cars being mentioned above, the V6 engines that powered both Italian cars were based on Ferrari toolings when Fiat used to own the Prancing Horse marque. (I may judge the idea of Toyota reviving and remodelling its products from European cars like those from Stellantis formerly known as Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot Citroen as brilliant, especially you could see more antiquarian and surviving French and Italian cars in North Africa anyway.

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