![1936 Toyoda Model AA 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/1936_Toyoda_Model_AA_03.jpg)
The A1 was the first prototype passenger car built by the company that became
Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
. It was redesigned and put into production as Toyota's first production cars, the AA
sedan and the AB
cabriolet
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
. These were succeeded by the similar AE, AC and BA sedans.
The series as a whole was replaced by the quite different and much more advanced
SA.
A1
Three A1 prototypes were completed in May 1935. None of them survive. They were blessed in a Buddhist ceremony and
Kiichiro Toyoda
was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.
Toyod ...
then drove one of them to the grave of
Sakichi Toyoda
was a Japanese inventor and industrialist. He was born in Kosai, Shizuoka. The son of a farmer and sought-after carpenter, he started the Toyoda family companies. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, would later establish Japan's largest automaker, Toyo ...
, his father, who gave him the seed money to start a car factory.
After completion of the prototypes, Toyota then switched its attention to the
G1 truck because it was more likely to be profitable in the short term. After the G1 was in production the company was able to spend resources on developing the AA and AB passenger cars.
Dates
The A1 prototypes were completed in May 1935.
Mechanicals
The A1 used the
Type A Overhead valve
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...
6-cylinder engine producing with a 3-speed column-shift manual gearbox.
The Type A engine was copied from a purchased and reverse engineered 1933
Chevrolet Master
The Chevrolet Master and Master Deluxe are American passenger vehicles manufactured by Chevrolet between 1933 and 1942 to replace the 1933 Master Eagle. It was the more expensive model in the Chevrolet range at this time, with the Standard Merc ...
, and the chassis and electrics were copied from
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
.
Solid axles were used at both ends. Pressed metal discs were used for all 4 wheel rims (very modern for the time). Braking was by drums.
The mechanicals were the same as used in the production AA, AB and
G1 vehicles.
Body
The A1 was a fully enclosed, 4-door sedan, with conventional front-hinged front doors and rear-hinged
suicide-style rear doors. It was heavily based on the
Chrysler
Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
built
DeSoto Airflow
The DeSoto Airflow was an automobile built by DeSoto during model years 1934, 1935 and 1936. DeSoto received the then-revolutionary Airflow model due to its price structure relationship to larger and more expensive Chrysler brand cars. The 1934 Ai ...
, which was a reflection of
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
and
streamline
Streamline may refer to:
Business
* Streamline Air, American regional airline
* Adobe Streamline, a discontinued line tracing program made by Adobe Systems
* Streamline Cars, the company responsible for making the Burney car
Engineering
...
d appearances.
Toyoda bought an Airflow and disassembled it the year before producing the A1. The front window was a single piece of flat glass with a top-mounted wiper on the driver's side. There were 3 windows per side, one for the front door (without a
quarter light
Quarter glass (or quarter light) on automobiles and closed carriages may be a side window in the front door or located on each side of the car just forward of the rear-facing rear window of the vehicle. Only some cars have them. In some cases ...
window), one for the rear door and one behind the rear door. A spare tyre was mounted on the nearly vertical
boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...
lid.
The A1 was available only as a right-hand-drive vehicle.
AA/AB
The AA was similar to the A1 prototypes with only minor changes.
Dates and production figures
A total of 1,404 AA
sedans were produced from 1936 to 1943, when the model was replaced by the more austere AC.
A total of 353 AB
convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
, including the military ABR version, was produced from 1936 to 1942. There was no direct replacement.
Body types
The AA was a fully enclosed 4-door
sedan that largely copied the design of the Chrysler built
DeSoto Airflow
The DeSoto Airflow was an automobile built by DeSoto during model years 1934, 1935 and 1936. DeSoto received the then-revolutionary Airflow model due to its price structure relationship to larger and more expensive Chrysler brand cars. The 1934 Ai ...
. It had a metal body on a metal
ladder chassis
A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps used for climbing or descending. There are two types: rigid ladders that are self-supporting or that may be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rollable ladders, such a ...
. The metal body was of modern construction compared to the fabric-over-wooden-frame bodies used on cars designed in the 1920s. The rear doors opened backwards as
suicide door
A suicide door is an automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on horse-drawn carriages, but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are perceived as being less safe than a fron ...
s. The front glass spanned the entire width of the body in a single pane.
The AB was identical to the AA except that it was a
convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
with a folding cloth roof, the rear doors opened forwards like conventional doors and the front glass could fold down onto the engine compartment.
Mechanicals
The mechanicals were the same as used in the A1 prototype.
50th year replica
![1936 Toyoda Model AA 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/1936_Toyoda_Model_AA_04.jpg)
Toyota wanted to use an AA for its 50th birthday in 1987 but couldn't find any surviving examples.
Toyota decided to build a replica but even for that there were no complete and consistent plans. Plans that could be found were from various points during the car's development process and in any case were often incomplete and lacking by today's standards. However, a single replica was built that is believed to be representative of the AA. The replica uses the 2.3-liter
Toyota 2M straight-six engine. This replica is now in the
Toyota Automobile Museum
The is a large museum showcasing Toyota's storied past. It is a large complex located in Nagakute city, a city close to Nagoya, Japan.
Collection
Unlike the Toyota USA Automobile Museum, the museum in Nagoya also features many cars from othe ...
.
Discovery of the oldest known AA
In 2008 an original AA was found in Russia in derelict and heavily modified condition, with undercarriage and drivetrain from a
GAZ-51
The GAZ-51 (nickname ''Gazon'') was a Soviet truck manufactured by GAZ. Its first prototypes were produced before the end of World War II and has been influenced by Studebaker US6. The mass production started in 1946.
A 2.5 ton 4×2 standard vari ...
truck. It is now displayed, still in this condition, in the
Louwman Museum
The Louwman Museum is a museum for historic cars, coaches, and motorcycles in The Hague, Netherlands. It is situated on the Leidsestraatweg near the A44 highway. The museum's former names are "Nationaal Automobiel Museum" and "Louwman Collectio ...
in the Netherlands.
AC
The AC was similar to the AA, with only minor alternations to the body. The front glass was now a split into left and right halves with thick metal body work between them.
Dates and production figures
![1943 Toyota Model AC 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/1943_Toyota_Model_AC_02.jpg)
Design work began in 1938. A total of 115 AC sedans was produced from 1943 until the model was replaced by the
Toyota SA The SA was Toyota's first new passenger car design (as opposed to updating the AA) after World War II. It was the first in a family of vehicles before the introduction of the Crown. A series of light trucks also shared the chassis and major comp ...
during 1947–1948. Forty-three were produced in 1943, 19 in 1944 (until February), and 50 units were made from spares in 1947 for a military order, with a final three being built in 1948. No Toyota passenger car production occurred in the years 1945 and 1946, although what would become the first post-war car, the SA, was in development during these years.
Mechanicals
The mechanicals were similar to the AA and AB.
EA
Kiichiro Toyoda designed the EA as a copy of the
DKW F7
The DKW F7 is a front-wheel-drive small family car launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1937 as a replacement for the DKW F5.
The body
Changes between the F5 and the F7 were mostly at a detailed level. However, the entry level Reichsklass ...
sedan in 1938 but production was prevented by war time restrictions.
Dates and production figures
The EA was designed in 1938 but did not go into production.
Mechanicals
A small front-mounted, 2-cylinder, 2-stroke
Type E engine connected as
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longit ...
.
EB
The EB was a
rear-wheel-drive
Rear-wheel drive (RWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the rear wheels only. Until the late 20th century, rear-wheel drive was the most common configuration for cars.
Most rear-wheel ...
minicar derived from the DKW-inspired
EA type, but production was prevented by wartime restrictions.
Dates and production figures
The EB was designed in 1938 but did not go into production.
Mechanicals
A small front-mounted, 2-cylinder, 2-stroke
Type E engine installed at the front and driving the rear wheels.
AE
The AE sedan was a smaller car than its predecessors.
Dates and production figures
The AE was developed during 1939, and a prototype was completed in September of that year. The model was introduced at the beginning of 1940. However, production occurred from 1941 to 1943. Only 76 of this model were built.
["One Hundred Years of the Automobile, 1886–1986", Marco Ruiz (editor), New York: Gallery Books, 1985, ]["Japan's Toyota with Stovebolts", Bob Hall, in "Special-Interest Autos", Mar-Apr 1977]
Mechanicals
The mechanicals were similar to the AA except that it had the
Type C engine, which was a Type A with 2 cylinders removed.
BA
The BA was an austerity sedan, and used wood in its framing to conserve metal. This model is said to have been based on the Volvo PV60,
["The Complete History of the Japanese Car", Marco Ruiz, New York: Portland House, 1986, ] but this is open to question, since the PV60 was not introduced until 1944, and did not enter production until 1946. Most of the prototypes of this Volvo were built in the 1942–1944 period. There is anecdotal information regarding a 1939 PV60 prototype, but the data is sketchy and no photos exist.
["Volvo: The Cars -- From the 20s to the 80's", Björn-Eric Lindh, Malmö: Förlagshuset Norden AB, 1986, ]
Dates and production figures
The BA was introduced and first produced in 1940. No more than 17 were built.
Some sources, however, claim the model did not enter production, such as it was, until 1943, with one giving the date of June 1943.
But judging from 1943's production figures, the majority of which would have to represent the AC, it would not seem to be the case that all 17 BA production cars were built that year. The production of the 17 cars may have occurred in 1940 and 1943, or perhaps it was stretched over the 1940–1943 period, with the last few being completed in 1943, when the model was said to have started "official" production. Support for the notion that at least a few of these cars were produced in 1943 would come from a photograph (obtained from Toyota Motor Co. Ltd.) of a BA captioned as "1943 Totoya Model BA 4-cylinder saloon" in at least one source.
["The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars: 1885 to the Present", ]G.N. Georgano
George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017[Nick Georgano](_blank)
Alvis Archive Bl ...
, New York: E. P. Dutton, 2nd edition, 1973,
Other prototypes never built in series
One example of the Model BB phaeton was built, in 1941.
It resembled a contemporary Chevrolet.
Two
or three
["Toyota seit 1936", Joachim Kuch, Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, Artikelnummer 17060] examples of a luxury sedan, known as the Model B (or Model BC, according to one source
["The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile", ]G.N. Georgano
George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017[Nick Georgano](_blank)
Alvis Archive Bl ...
, Norwich: The Stationery Office Limited, 2000, ), were built. Although one source associates this model with the year 1942,
most claim the prototypes were built in 1944.
This was the last passenger car development until after the war ended.
Toyota passenger car production from 1935 to 1949
The following table is a portion of that put out by Toyota, and represents passenger car production only, apparently not including prototypes:
References
* "Toyota-fifty years in motion", Eiji Toyoda, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1987.
* "Against all odds", Yukiyasu Togo & William Wartman, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993, , p56-73
* "Autos Made in Japan", Jan P. Norbye, Gerlingen: Bleicher Verlag, 1991,
* Toyota history web page, 1867–1939, http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/history/1867.html
* Toyota history web page, 1940–1949, http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/history/1940.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toyota Aa
Cars introduced in 1936
AA
First car made by manufacturer
Sedans
Convertibles
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Streamline Moderne cars
1940s cars
Streamliner cars