The new Supra is the only Toyota people are talking about right now, but it’s not the only interesting thing to come out of the company lately. Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s factory motorsports division, just restored this beautiful Sports 800 race car from the 1960s, and we can’t get enough of it.
According to Gazoo Racing’s Japanese-language press site, this Sports 800 won the first-ever Suzuka 500-KM race in 1966. Weighing in at just 1279 pounds, it burned less fuel than the competition, allowing it to go the the entire race without stopping for a refill. It beat out heavyweights like the Lotus Elan, Datsun Fairlady, Honda S600, and Skyline GT. The twin-cylinder engine made an entire 70 horsepower (up from the road car’s 45 horsepower) thanks to a lighter flywheel, bigger carburetor, higher compression ratio, more aggressive cam, and a free-flowing muffler. As you can see from the pictures below, the car was found in a sorry state. Over half of the body was rebuilt with new material, and reinforced the rockers and suspension mounting areas to perform better than when it raced in-period.
In addition to the body reinforcement, Gazoo Racing updated the interior wth a dedicated instrument panel and a “special” seat, along with a better ignition system. The car looks absolutely stunning, and works perfectly with Gazoo Racing’s modern red, black, and white livery. The interior and engine bay look like they’ve seen zero miles—a far stretch from the condition the car used to be in. The team put together a video highlighting the restoration, which you can see right here:
It’s not every day you see an obscure 1960s sports car get restored by the very factory it came from. We commend Gazoo Racing for keeping its heritage close by.
via Jalopnik
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