The kei sports car - The Toyota sports 800. #blogpost

The Toyota sports 800, is what opened the flood gates for small sports cars all over the world that we all know and love, it was the first ever affordable production sports car for the Japanese domestic market, and its success sparked japan to go sports car crazy. with cars such as the 2000GT, celica, mr2 just to name a few, and here is how it done it.

This is the Toyota Publica sports the compact and lightweight two-seat concept car, released at the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show, that was the inspiration and the bases for the 800. Little had changed from the concept mainly the rather odd looking sliding canopy roof which looked really futuristic but it also weighed a lot more than a conventional roof, so that idea was scraped and in its place went a removable targa roof. one of the very few cars to use that at the time and you could easily store in the boot of the car.

As well as some body modifications the new 800 got an upgraded engine, from 700CC to an absolutely massive 800CC air cooled 2 cylinder hence the name this boosted the power from 28hp to 45hp. this thirsty engine was fed by two carburetors and could average out 73mpg, great for japan at the time as it was after the war and they had a massive fuel crisis so this would be the perfect car for the job.

The car was made and designed to a simple phrase “make it light and add power” and oh boy did it work, the car had around 45hp absolutely unheard of from the other modern sports cars of today however the little toyota overcame this power shortage by making every single piece that little bit lighter,

First the body it was design by stylist Shozo Sato was among the most aerodynamic of that era he set to work shaping the front of the car around the lights and tried to get as little amount of air passing through inside the car. Secondly, chief engineer Tatsuo Hasegawa had a history in aircraft design, so ensured that the car was lightweight in construction and agile in use every part of this car was made out of thin gauge steel apart from the removable targa roof and the seat frames which was aluminium.

this meant this tiny fast little sports car’s curb weight was only 580kg to put that into perspective the equivalent smart car of today is 940kg and only has an extra 30 horse power. this meant it could just nudge 100 miles per hour and at the time that was a fast little car,

Unfortunately however from 1965 to 1969 only 3131 cars were produced and it was never officially sold outside of japan. all of which were right hand drive, apart from 300 special vehicles were left hand drive, and exported to america for the military to use.

5 years after production started, it is estimated that only 10 per cent of all Toyota Sport 800 models ever made still survive, most of which remain in Japan today, so it is one very rare car indeed but one we should all be very thankful for as it has spawned some amazing cars that we all know and love.

this small kei car also had a history in motorsport, primarily in long distance races such as the fuji 24 hour race thanks to its massive fuel range and impeccable reliability and in 1967 it came third place, at the time it was a very fast car however not fast enough to keep up wit its bigger brothers, the 2000GT’s which came in 1st and 2nd.

And this is were it all ends, you may not have realised it but that tiny 800CC sports car was responsible for some all time great Japanese sports car, just think without that car there may not have been any MR2’s. celica’s, 2000GT’s, supra’s, GT86’s etc.. or even there might not have been any Lexus LFA so just remember there maybe great cars out just now but if it wasn’t for that first sports car, Toyota sports cars might not have happened at all or even Japanese sports cars as a whole.

thank you for reading, this is one of my first blog posts I’ve made so nothing too special but i hope you enjoy it anyway also yes i know my punctuation is pretty poor lol sorry