There are a lot of ways a car can achieve an eye-watering value. It can be exceptional, beautiful, or exceptionally beautiful. It can have an interesting backstory. It can have a rare attribute, like being a one-off or a prototype. Or it can be associated with Carroll Shelby’s glory days of racing. This Toyota-Shelby 2000GT hit so many of those buttons that are sure to deliver a sky-high valuation that it’s hard to know where to start. You know something is special, though, when you look at the bottom line. Mecum expects this rare Toyota to bring in at least $2.75 million when it crosses the auction block in March.
Copyright and Courtesy of Gooding & Company, Images by Josh Hway
The 2000GT, for years admired but a bit obscure in the eyes of collectors, has seen its value jump up to levels that befit such a rare, beautiful, and interesting sports car. It’s tiny, it’s gorgeous, and it features a phenomenal I-6 hot-rodded by Yamaha with aluminum hemi heads and dual overhead cams. Think Jaguar E-Type, but lighter and more exotic—as well as more expensive and rarer. You’re already in million-dollar territory with just a standard 2000GT these days.
But this is the very first 2000GT to wear a serial number—MF10-10001—making it an extremely early example and the very car Toyota brought to auto shows to wow the public. Another notch in its valuation belt.
And then there’s the Carroll Shelby connection. The famous dealmaker managed to secure an arrangement with Toyota to field some 2000GTs, like this one, in SCCA racing in America. Shelby’s employees got to work modifying the car for competition, and the resulting cars looked great. Shame they couldn’t win. They simply couldn’t outmuscle the Porsches on the grid, and Toyota flinched. What another season of development and competition could have done to the 2000GT is anybody’s guess.
Second place is just the first loser, right? But only the extremely well-heeled race cars like this anymore, and nobody cares if it comes in just behind a 911. The fact that this Toyota exists, and raced in the period, is all the legitimacy it needs. The fact that Shelby’s people prepped the car, and it was by all accounts pretty close to the established and much more developed 911s it battled against is a credit to the car. Also, just look at it! One of the great all-time classic liveries, plenty of Japanese competition white accented by a tasteful splash of color and just a few sponsor decals.
In its post-competition life, the 2000GT has been restored, been to auto shows and won at least one concours award, and has likely collected the drool of at least a dozen overzealous onlookers. Did those droolers know the car they were gently desecrating is likely to be worth a couple or three original Shelby Cobra 289s? Come mid-March in Glendale, their jaws might slack again when the hammer comes down.
Keyword: This Rare, Porsche-Hunting Shelby Race Car Ain’t Some Cobra—It’s a Toyota