Car enthusiasts have been surprised by the recent photos of Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu’s car garage at his villa in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City. The yard, which used to be filled with luxury cars, is now filled with dozens of vintage sports cars.
It’s not surprising considering that in the past year, the Chairman of Trung Nguyen has developed an interest in JDM cars. He buys any JDM car that’s for sale to expand his collection quickly. Additionally, he also helps revive abandoned or broken JDM cars that people have discarded or don’t know how to repair.
Toyota Sports 800
The presence of two Toyota Sports 800 sports cars in “Qua” Vu’s car park, as shown in the shared photos, is noteworthy. These cars were once considered the supercars of Japan.
One car is silver, while the other is an impressive white color. Individually, they may not create much buzz, but having a pair of them in one place is prestigious for car enthusiasts and owners who truly appreciate them.
The Sports 800 is the first sports car produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota, and there aren’t many of them in Vietnam. The prototype of the Sports 800, called the Publica Sports, was first introduced at the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show. It featured a futuristic sliding canopy and used the drivetrain from the Publica 700, an economical car in the Japanese market.
The Toyota Sports 800 is affectionately called “Yota-Hachi,” which is the Japanese abbreviation for “Toyota 8”. In Japan, this car is exclusively sold through Toyota Japan’s retail channel called Toyota Publica Store, along with the Publica.
Exterior Design
The Toyota Sports 800 has a cute rounded appearance, with the main highlight being the large round headlights and chrome eyelids. The front of the car has a low center of gravity, a low-set grille, and additional protruding bars for front and rear protection.
The engine hood of the Toyota Sports 800 is located at the front and opens upward with hinges on top, which is quite interesting. The convertible top is very appealing, with a rear window that provides a clear view of the interior, creating an open feeling for the rear of the car.
The Toyota Sports 800 sports car has dimensions of approximately 3,580 mm in length, 1,465 mm in width, and 1,175 mm in height. It has a wheelbase of 2,000 mm and weighs approximately 580 kg.
The aerodynamic design of the Toyota Sports 800 was carried out by Shozo Sato, a designer borrowed from Datsun, and Toyota engineer Tatsuo Hasegawa. Hasegawa used to be an aircraft designer during World War II, and the result is that the Sports 800 is a light and agile machine.
The Toyota Sports 800 was one of the first production cars to have a lifted roof, also known as a Targa top, even before the Porsche Targa sports car. The aluminum Targa top can be stored in the trunk when not in use.
History of the Toyota Sports 800
From 1965 to 1969, Toyota subcontractor Kanto Auto Works produced about 3,131 cars. Only around 10% of those cars are known to still exist, mostly in Japan. Most of the 3,131 cars produced were right-hand drive models, but approximately 300 of them were left-hand drive models, mainly built for the Okinawa market (Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States, 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 for “test driving” in the United States. However, US dealerships believed that the Sports 800 would not sell well in the US market, so they decided not to import or sell the car there. Toyota allowed these dealerships to keep the initial batch of about 40 Sports 800 cars in the US instead of shipping them back to Japan.
There were minor design differences throughout the years. Notable differences include the change from non-synchronized to synchronized first gear in 1967, a grille and bumper change in 1968, and side markers in 1969. However, the basic body design remained unchanged.
Transmission System
The Toyota Sports 800 is powered by a horizontally opposed 2-cylinder 790 cc boxer engine, equipped with a 4-speed manual transmission.
The 2U 0.8-liter type, which produces 44 horsepower at 5,400 rpm, was produced from 1965 to 1969, while the similar 2U-B type was produced from 1966 to 1976.
The weight is reduced by using aluminum on selected body panels and thin steel on the monocoque structure. In the initial years, even the seat frames were made of aluminum.
Toyota created a one-off prototype Sports 800 Gas Turbine Hybrid for the 1979 Tokyo Motor Show. The Sports 800’s body is also the basis for the Sports EV and Sports EV Twin electric concept cars, both of which were unveiled in 2010.
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