Concept Toyota 2000GT Restomod powerful original racing engine

Don’t let its graceful lines fool you because this HotCars exclusive is the natural successor to the Shelby-tuned Toyota 2000GT.

As Japan’s first true sports car, the Toyota 2000GT had an elegant design that rivaled its British and Italian Grand Touring rivals. Toyota also improved its engine: a 2.0-liter DOHC inline 6-cylinder engine producing 150 horsepower, combined with a 5-speed manual transmission.

However, it was the car’s racing potential that caught Carroll Shelby’s attention. After partnering with the automaker in 1968, he customized two Toyota 2000GTs and raced them in SCCA competitions. It was a short but meaningful period in the history of this car.

HotCars digital artist Rostislav Prokop recreates a Toyota 2000GT that retains the spirit of the original sports car. But this refresh also includes engines, and this is where Shelby’s influence comes in. Even though this sports car doesn’t have racing colors, it can still blast down the track.

Prokop kept the low Coke bottle design like the original version but also flattened some of the edges, especially on the protruding part. The car is now painted light silver gray and has a fiberglass body.

At the front, the quad headlights with pop-up lights at the top remain the same but are now LED halo lights. The grille is still located between the lower headlights but this time it is narrower. There’s also a carbon fiber lift-up hood, which both reduces weight and simplifies race maintenance.

On the sides, the wheel wells are more prominent, making it look more like a Toyota Supra. Moving to the rear, carbon fiber covers frame the headlights, which are now all red halo LEDs.

In 1966, the first year the car was produced, Toyota won races right in its own country. Two years later, Shelby and his team helped the automaker go international. The build included adding three Mikuni carburetors and custom mag wheels along with some racing parts to push the horsepower of the 3M engine up to 200 horsepower.

Unfortunately, the Porsche 911 beat Shelby’s Toyota. But a swapped Toyota Supra 2JZ-GTE inline-six gives Prokop a better chance of winning. Starting with a base output of 320 horsepower, we imagine that improvements like larger turbochargers, engine tuning, and upgraded manifolds and other systems could push horsepower well over 1,000 horse power.

Currently, the rare Toyota 2000GT is extremely expensive, with an average price of $1 million, according to classic.com, and a Shelby Toyota recently sold for a whopping $2.5 million in last year. But this sleekly souped-up Toyota 2000GT offers all the fun of the original and without the expense of dreaming.