The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 8 Magical Shelby Dust Settles on the First Toyota 2000GT had been aborted, leaving Brock with not much to do. He decided it would be a good time to part ways. After leaving Shelby American he started BRE – Brock Racing Enter- prises. One of his first projects was to prepare two racing sedans for Hino, one of the smaller Japanese manufac- turers involved with small truck pro- duction but just breaking into cars. At that time no one in Japan had any idea how to build a race car from their production cars. BRE built a pair of 1000cc Hino Contessa sedans and sparked some factory interest and a second pair of cars were constructed, 1300cc Contes- sas, and they were entered in the sup- port race for the Times Mirror Grand Prix in October of 1966. They won their class against a field of Minis, Cortinas, VWs, SAABs and Fiats in front of upwards of 80,000 spectators. They made headlines back in Tokyo where the cars were described as the “ winners of the most important race in America .” They went a little overboard on hyperbole, but it none the less helped convince Hino to bring the cars to America. At that time Hino, practically un- known in this country, was the largest manufacturer of trucks and buses in the Orient and Toyota owned 15% of Hino. Production Toyota sedans were too small, underpowered and unreli- able so they were poor sellers in the U.S. Only the pick-ups sold well. Toy- ota hatched a secret plan to take over and absorb Hino and use their produc- tion facilities to build pick-up trucks. The hostile takeover and signaled the end of Hino as a car manufacturer. Brock’s reputation with Hino con- vinced Toyota to offer him the oppor- tunity to run its U.S. racing operation, which was in the planning stages. After signing contracts with Toyota, Brock expanded his BRE race shop in El Segundo, California. He ordered a new dynamometer from the U.K. and hired Mac Tilton as crew chief and chassis designer Trevor Harris as well as a handful of other fabricators and mechanics. By 1967, the first prototype Toyota 2000 GT had been built. It was painted red and was used as a demon- strator for dealers, displayed at car shows in the U.S. and shown to prospective customers. Toyota built two more cars and prepared to ship all three to BRE where they would be turned into SCCA C/Production race cars. Carroll Shelby got wind of Brock’s project and, needing work to sustain Shelby American due to the termina- tion of the Cobra and moving Shelby Mustang production to Michigan, he The first serial numbered 1967 Toyota 2000GT sold for $2,535,000 at the Gooding & Co. auction at Amelia Island, Florida this past March mak- ing it the highest priced Japanese car ever sold at auction. Although Good- ing’s estimate of $2.75M to $3.3M proved to be slightly optimistic, the sale price was clearly in that ballpark. We’re left with the lingering question of what was responsible for this car’s high price? Toyota only produced 351 of these cars, and recent auction prices have been in the $1M range – plenty strong for what is arguably the most valuable Toyota. But what makes this particular car worth two and a half times more? In 1966 Toyota decided it wanted to get into the sports car market, espe- cially in the U.S., with a world-class sports car, something closer to a Fer- rari than an MG Midget. The 2000 GT was designed by Yamaha and first of- fered to Nissan, but they rejected it be- cause they already had a similar two-seat coupe in the works they called the 240Z. It was large enough for a typical American driver. The Yamaha design was smaller, dimen- sionally, and better suited to a smaller (Oriental) driver. It was also sophisti- cated from an engineering standpoint. It would be more expensive) than its competition, the Porsche and Tri- umph. Toyota accepted it because it was also completely different from the smaller, more utilitarian cars they were known for. It would compete in the same market as the Porsche 911 and the Jaguar XKE and would be priced around $7,000 – slightly more than either of those cars. By 1966 a lot had changed at Shelby American. Ford’s infusion of cash to support the GT40 program and Shelby Mustang production brought with it an abundance of Ford over- sight. Things were no longer “loosey- goosey” like they had been in Venice. The Cobra program was beginning to wind down; Shelby had won the World Manufacturers Championship for GT cars and proven his point. Peter Brock’s “Type 65” 427 Daytona Coupe