A car that is often forgotten is the late 1960s Toyota 2000GT. But, it shouldn't be. That's because it has the sensuality of a Ferrari and the six-cylinder carburetted soundtrack akin to a Jaguar E-Type.
For those that understand, it's a highly sought after item. And with just over 350 units built globally, you better bet your bottom dollar they're very hard to come by.
IF you come across one, expect to pay upwards of a million smackers for a good example.
That said, the latest clip from Petrolicious details the story of a French family that was involved in the transportation industry since 1900. Having started the oldest French Toyota dealership, it had the fortune of acquiring not one, but two, 2000GTs. Unfortunately, they had to go due to unspecified reasons.
But, for two brothers, they wanted to surprise their father for his 70th birthday. This is their story.
In this week’s film we head off to the French commune of Annemasse just outside of Switzerland, where we met multiple generations of the Degenève family as they recounted the story of this Toyota 2000GT. The clan operates the oldest Toyota dealer in the country, and at one point Jean-Pierre Degenève owned two of these cars. He was forced to sell them both, but decades later his sons tracked down this white example outside of Tokyo with the help of Toyota. After buying and then hiding the car from their father’s eyes for months, he was finally presented with it on his 70th birthday. That’s gifting tastefully.