The is

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 ...

's first production

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

. The prototype for the Sports 800, called the Publica Sports, debuted at the 1962

Tokyo Auto Show The is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recognized international show ...

, featuring a space age sliding canopy and utilizing the powertrain of the

Publica VEB Typoart was the only type foundry of East Germany. It was a state-owned enterprise ("Volkseigener Betrieb") located in Dresden. The foundry's most influential art directors were Herbert Thannhäuser (until 1963) and Albert Kapr (until 1987). ...

700, a Japanese market economy car. The Toyota Sports 800 is affectionately called the "Yota-Hachi" (ヨタハチ), which is a Japanese short form for "Toyota 8". In Japan, the vehicle was exclusive to Toyota Japan retail sales channel called '' Toyota Publica Store'' alongside the Publica.

History

The car went into production in 1965, with chassis code UP15 and an increase in

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

displacement from 700 cc to 800 cc, as well as dual carburetors, which increased power from . This engine was sufficient to power the light car around town at or on a race track up to about . Production started after the introduction of Honda's first car, called the

Honda S500 The S500 was the second production car from Honda (and its first passenger automobile), released in 1963, following the T360 truck into production by four months. It was a larger-displacement variant of the S360 roadster which, though develope ...

, and joined the market segment that was already represented by the

Datsun Fairlady The Datsun Sports (called Datsun Fairlady in the Japanese and Australian markets), was a series of roadsters produced by Nissan in the 1960s. The series was a predecessor to the Z-car in the Fairlady line, and offered a competitor to the European ...

, and the

Daihatsu Compagno The Daihatsu Compagno is an automobile which was produced by Daihatsu in Japan from 1963 to 1970. The name comes from the Italian word for "partner." The Compagno was designed to be offered in multiple bodystyles, and was introduced prior to the ...

. The car had aerodynamic styling by Shozo Sato, a designer on loan from Datsun, and Toyota engineer

Tatsuo Hasegawa Tatsuo Hasegawa (長谷川龍雄, ''Hasegawa Tatsuo'', February 8, 1916 – April 29, 2008) was a Japanese automotive engineer, and known as the development chief of the first Toyota Corolla. He built the base of the economy cars in Japan ...

. Hasegawa had been an aircraft designer in World War II and the resulting Sports 800 was a lightweight and agile machine. The Sports 800 was one of the first production cars featuring a lift-out roof panel, or

targa top Targa top, or targa for short, is a semi-convertible car body style with a removable roof section and a full width roll bar behind the seats. The term was first used on the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa, and it remains a registered trademark of Porsc ...

, pre-dating the Porsche Targa. The aluminum

could be stored in the trunk, when not in use. Between 1965 and 1969 approximately 3,131 units were built by Toyota subcontractor

Kanto Auto Works was a Japanese car manufacturer. It was a member of the Toyota Group. In July 2012, Kanto Auto Works and two other Toyota subsidiaries were merged to form Toyota Motor East Japan. History In April 1946, Kanto Auto Works was established in Y ...

. Only about 10% of those vehicles are known to have survived, most being in Japan. Production tables show 1,235 cars manufactured in 1965, 703 in 1966, 538 in 1967, 440 in 1968, and 215 in 1969. The vast majority of the 3,131 cars were right hand drive, but some 300 were

left hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

models, built primarily for the

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

market (Okinawa, having been American occupied, drove on the right side of the road instead of the left like the rest of Japan). A very limited number of left hand drive cars were used by Toyota to "test drive" in the US, but the American dealerships decided the 800 would not sell well in the US and made a decision not to import or sell the cars in the US market. Toyota let these dealers keep the original batch of around 40 Sports 800s in the US instead of having them shipped back to Japan. There are subtle design differences between the years. Noticeable differences have included: change over from non-synchro to

synchro A synchro (also known as selsyn and by other brand names) is, in effect, a transformer whose primary-to-secondary coupling may be varied by physically changing the relative orientation of the two windings. Synchros are often used for measuring ...

first gear in 1967; a grill and bumperette change in 1968; and side marker lights in 1969. The basic body design, however, remained unchanged. An air-cooled 790 cc horizontally opposed two-cylinder

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

engine powered the vehicle. The 0.8 liter 2U (45 PS at 5,400 rpm) was produced from 1965 through 1969, while a similar 2U-B was produced from 1966 through 1976 (in 1975 the Dyna Coaster Bus manual shows that Toyota used the 2U-B as a separate auxiliary engine, just to run the air conditioning unit for the bus). In a less tuned form, the 2U was also used in the Publica (UP20/UP26) and MiniAce (UP100). Weight was kept down by using aluminum on selected body panels and thin steel on the unibody construction. For the first few years of production even the seat frames were made of aluminum. Toyota produced a one-off prototype Sports 800 Gas Turbine Hybrid for the 1979

Tokyo Motor Show The is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recognized international show by ...

. The body of the Sports 800 also served as basis of the Sports EV and Sports EV Twin electric concept cars, both unveiled in 2010. File:Publica Sports.JPG, Publica Sports styling prototype File:1967 Toyota Sports 800.jpg, A 1967 Toyota Sports 800 in

left-hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

configuration File:1965 Toyota Sports-800 02.jpg, Rear view of 1965 Sports 800 with roof panel removed File:Toyota-Sports800EV.jpg, Toyota Sports 800 EV Twin

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

North American Owner's Registry

Yahoo Groups Toyota 700 and 800 Publica and Sports 800 Group

Japanese Club Page

Yotahachi North American Resource Page

{{Toyota road cars timeline, 1955-1984 Cars introduced in 1965 Cars powered by 2-cylinder engines Cars powered by boxer engines Coupés Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Roadsters Sports 800

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links