The Toyota Automobile Museum – Part 4: The “Modern” Era (1960-1990)

Welcome to the final leg in our loooong tour of the Toyota Collection. This will probably be the one most of you will relate to best, but it will also be the most frustrating in a way: the collection is pretty egalitarian, in that it allows just as much space to, say, the 1910s or ‘20s as it does to the 1960s and ‘70s. Yet there are many more cars of the ‘60s/‘70s that one would like to see. So it feels like there are more gaps in this part than in previous ones. In reality, it’s just the same. With two notable exceptions.

And that exception is American cars. This Falcon, being a 1960 model, is part of the collection – as are the other two Big Three compacts, which I will look into in their own posts. But the gargantuan land yachts of the ‘70s and Malaise-mobiles of the ‘80s are conspicuously absent.

The other notable gap in the museum’s otherwise encyclopedic breadth is the Eastern Bloc. From 1945 to 1990, a significant portion of the world lived in a very different automotive environment, made up of Moskviches, Trabants and Škodas within a sea of Ladas, but you’d never know it from this collection. To be fair, there was a single Eastern Bloc car. But we’ll see it in its own post sometime later.

But hey, at least the JDM stuff was extremely well represented, especially in this section – as it ought to be, given the name and location of the museum. Salmon-coloured Toyota Publica, anyone?

The Publica was designed in answer to the Japanese government calling on the country’s main automotive players to design and manufacture a “People’s car” – something small, but a bit bigger than the 360cc kei cars that prevailed up to then. Another entrant was the Mitsubishi 500, the company’s first modern car. It was quite crude and cheap, but it’s hard to go from zero to Lancer Evo without a few intermediary steps…

The first four-wheeled Mazda, folks. A far cry from the RX-7 to be sure, but already rather quirky, isn’t it? Much more interesting than that blob of a Mitsubishi. I have found one of these out in the open, so it’ll have its CC post at some juncture.

While Isuzu and Nissan were busy securing licensing deals from the UK (with Rootes and Austin, respectively), truck-maker Hino went shopping in France for a small popular car and found the Renault 4CV. They manufactured these in Japan between 1953 and 1963. This is a 1962 model, at which point French production was already ended. Hino then developed their own designs, which kept the rear-engine architecture, before being taken over by Toyota in the late ‘60s.

I suppose a lot of kei cars got at least some inspiration from the venerable Fiat 500. This 1963 example still has suicide doors, just like Subaru and Mitsubishi’s small rear-engined machines.

Plenty of these Fairlady roadsters still roam the roads here, but they’re usually later ones. Apparently, in its first-year of production, the Datsun Fairlady was a three-seater. The things you learn in this museum.

Out of a malformed and asthmatic tamagochi called Isetta hatched the glorious Neue Klasse. And BMW not only survived, but thrived. What a twist, and what a car.

There wasn’t much outside the walls of the museum buildings, with the notable exception of this 1963 Toyota FB80 “Bonnet bus.”

Added bonus: you could climb aboard!

The last major Japanese carmaker to enter the fray did so with style, assurance and a DOHC engine. I wrote one of these up not too long ago, but one never tires of the Honda S500.

Prince could be better represented in this collection – just one car is a bit stingy. But then, they do outshine contemporary Toyotas, so it’s understandable that this particular museum might prefer to keep the Crowns and the Princes in separate rooms.

Hands down, this is my favourite large Japanese saloon of the ‘60s. Well, tied with the Mitsubishi Debonair, maybe. Wrote one of these up recently, so it’s not like I needed to take so many pictures. But I couldn’t help myself.

Ol’ shovel-nose was in the house, of course. Much as I despise the T40 Corona’s looks (well, just the front end, really, as the rest is just fine), it cannot be denied that it was a huge hit for Toyota. And an international one, at that. Must write up the one I found in the wild one of these days.

The last US-made exhibit in the museum, ladies and gents. It had to be a ’65 Mustang – easily the most influential American design of the mid-‘60s. Detroit lost the plot after that, drowning in a sea of Brougham, desperately trying to use their botoxed bumpers as buoys. The placement of this lovely Mustang within the museum is rather cruel though, flanked by a Mk1 bullet train and a Toyota 2000GT.

Oh, and right in front of said Mustang was this E-Type roadster. Ambushed and attacked on all sides, I tells ya!

But let’s get back to the more reasonable cars of the mid-‘60s – i.e., the emerging Japanese family saloon. Nissan were doing very well with the 410 Bluebird, both domestically and in an increasing amount of foreign markets. The Pininfarina looks helped.

The fight for the middle class’s wallets was heating up. Mazda fielded a real contender in their superb Familia. A very fine blend of ‘60s designs – some Corvair, some Prince Gloria, a dash of Frua for the rear. Add a Hoffmeister kink and stir well.

Toyota answered with the Corolla, with devastating effect. The car’s original place within the range, above the Publica and below the Corona – i.e. 1.1-1.3 litre – was extremely well identified. There was a gap, Toyota filled it and laughed all the way to the bank. Though the name still exists today, Corollas have become so obese that they might as well be sumo wrestler offspring to the 1966 ballerina we have here.

Nissan had identified the same gap near the bottom of their range, of course. And their response was the Sunny. Not a million miles from the Corolla, but a bit more squarish, perhaps even staid compared to the Toyota. Still, it had a whiff of Italian style about it – a Fiat badge would not have looked out of place on it.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the almighty Century, the most luxurious JDM car ever devised up to that point. We’ve seen a couple of this first generation up close on CC before, but this is the first time I encounter one from the ‘60s – the original design. Gotta say, that gaping grille is a bit odd.

The other big Toyota news for 1967 was the 2000GT, a.k.a. Japan’s first supercar. Sure, it only had a 2-litre straight-6, but it still looked and sounded amazing. The Sports 800 had preceded it by a few years, with its Publica flat-twin. It would be very difficult for me to pick one or the other. The 2000GT is the more impressive of the two, but the Sports 800 is just too cute for words. And it goes plenty fast, too.

Back on the kei car scene, Suzuki gave up the FWD approach they had taken with the Suzulight and went all rear-engine. Confusingly, they called it “Fronte.”

Honda, on the other hand, went straight for the FWD solution and kept at it. The N360 was probably the most brilliant kei of the late ‘60s, with its OHC twin buzzing away at 8500rpm. And it looked good while doing it, too.

Mazda were also sticking their motor where the rising sun don’t shine for their small cars, but that had been the case since the start. The Carol (1962-70) sold very well initially, and was renowned for its solidity. By the time this 1969 car was in the dealerships though, Mazda’s neglect for their kei range had taken its toll on sales.

To be fair, Mazda were incredibly busy creating things like the Cosmo. And if they hadn’t, the world would have been a far, far less interesting place.

Given how popular the 911 is in Japan, one had to be in here somewhere. It’s a ’67 model, with Fuchs wheels and what looks like a Dutch license plate.

Gosh, we almost forgot Isuzu! These early 117 Coupés are really something else, aren’t they? Hand-made, exquisitely detailed and, at the time, very expensive.

Perfect colour scheme on this very early model Celica. Personally, I’m far more partial to the Liftback for this generation, but I could learn to live with this one.

But come on, the queen of Japanese sports coupes, in 1970, had to be the Fairlady Z. Six cylinders, independent suspension all round and looks to die for – what’s not to like? This particular one is the super-spicy Z432, meaning its 160hp triple-carb 2-litre DOHC engine is the exact same spec as used in the Skyline GT-R.

Ah, the immortal Civic. Well, “immortal” might be pushing it, as I have yet to see one in present-day traffic. So I assume there aren’t too many left.

Never knew that Isuzu called these “Bellett Gemini,” but apparently they did, at least for the first six months or so of the T-car’s production. Well, could be worse. They called these “Buick Opel by Isuzu” in the US, right?

The lone Ferrari on display was this 1979 Berlinetta Boxer. An odd choice – I would have picked something a bit older and with the engine in the front, myself…

The Mk1 Golf, on the other hand, is a perfectly legitimate collector’s item. Groundbreaking in many ways, iconic without a doubt.

I guess the same could be said about the Renault 5, though there are one or two other models from that maker I could think of that would be equally museum-worthy. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one this pristine.

The 1979 Suzuki Alto is where I draw the line. Not that it’s intrinsically bad or anything, but come on, it’s taking the place of so many potential exhibits! I also confess that I kinda skipped over the two Benzes. Those are still very present in daily traffic.

The first-generation Toyota Soarer (1980-84), on the other hand, is not often seen. So many shades of brown, it’s uncanny.

The first and only Audi encounter in this museum is the 1981 Quattro. Can’t really argue against that, can we?

Ok, you could argue the DeLorean is part-American. But what with it being Franco-Swedish powered, Italian-designed and British-built, I feel it’s more of a (dis-)United Nations car.

A terrific little number, the 1983 Honda City. But with this one, the most interesting part is in the trunk – well, it’s not in this one, but it can fit there.

The idea of a small hatchback that comes with a specially-tailored miniature moped has to be one of the wildest in all of automotive history. Honda, you win again.

Given how incredibly popular the AE86 is in this country, it’s impossible to fault the museum for having one on display, a Corolla Levin notchback. And it’s so refreshing to see one as it looked in a Corolla showroom back in 1983.

Good to see a Pike Car included here – and especially the Nissan BE-1, the true O.G. of the breed.

The lone postwar Peugeot was this scrumptious 205 GTI, the original 1986 model. Tasty, yes. But come on, a 404 or a 504 would have been on my list of non-negotiables. There was a very nice prewar Pug also on display, to be fair. But it’ll have its own CC post. There were a few other cars, mostly Toyotas of the ‘90s and ‘00s (like a Mk1 Prius) in a nook of the building a little further on, but I elected to wander around the rest of the place instead.

Which was a good thing, as they have a temporary exhibit in one of the annexes. The theme when I was there was celebrating the 70 years of the Toyota Crown.

The 1^st Gen Crown is kind of unique and not something you’re likely to ever see in present-day traffic. Realistically, Generations 2 (S40), 3 (S50) and 4 (S60) are the real classic Crowns. The gray Kujira gets my vote.

But perhaps the Kujira’s wild design was deemed a step too far, and Toyota reined it in for the next couple of generations, namely the S80 and S110. I call these the square Crowns. They sold decently well, but didn’t leave much of a fanbase behind.

Generations 7 (S120) and 8 (S130) were a lot more sophisticated, with IRS and more electronic gadgets. But they kept the body-on-frame construction. Said body now no longer included a coupé, but the “pillared hardtop” style was all the rage. Generation 8 above is still fairly common, having existed during the height of the Japanese Bubble Economy. The other Crowns were a bit too familiar to bother with, so I went up to the library instead.

And they have a huge library – like a proper one, containing books in various languages (Japanese of course, but also English, French and German) on almost every marque you could care to name. I could have stayed in there for a few hours, but I had to rendezvous with the rest of the T87 tribe.

All in all, a top-notch museum. They have, of course, about twice the number of cars in storage than they do on display, so I only scratched the surface. I have heard that there is a potentially even better/larger collection at the Japan Motorcar Museum in Komatsu. It’s on the bucket list…