The sliding glass cover — impractical as a manufacturing characteristic, primarily as a result of it was too heavy — had developed right into a Targa-style roof with a detachable panel that could possibly be saved within the trunk. The 800 got here out a number of months earlier than Porsche’s 911 Targa, formally making it the primary manufacturing automotive with such a factor.

It saved the Publica’s double-wishbone entrance suspension and rear leaf springs, together with the design of the physique, ground, and chassis. However, thinner-gauge, lighter-weight metal was used to make the unibody. The physique panels and Targa-roof had been constructed utilizing virtually paper-thin aluminum with nearly zero rust resistance. The mild-mannered 690cc air-cooled flat-twin cylinder engine from the Publica was bored out to 790cc. Twin carburetors had been added, and compression was boosted to 45 horsepower with a prime pace of round 96 mph. Every effort was made to maintain it mild; ultimately, it weighed only one,280 kilos.

With a value of simply $1,653, it offered effectively to the youthful technology however moved only one,235 models in 1965, and gross sales bottomed out in 1969 with simply 215. Thanks to its dependability and fuel mileage, although, it excelled at endurance racing and received the 1965 All-Japan Clubman Championship Race, the ’66 Suzuka 500km Endurance Race, and took third (behind a pair of Toyota’s 2000GTs) on the Fuji 24-hour race in 1967.

There could have by no means been the profitable lineage we all know right this moment — be it the rare and iconic 2000GT, Supra, Celica, MR2, and others — with out the Sports 800. One might even name it the Godfather of Toyota’s sports activities automotive empire.

[Featured image by TTTNIS via Wikimedia Commons| Scaled | CC BY-SA 1.0]