Toyota Sera - Critique of Pure Reason

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Toyota Sera - Critique of Pure Reason

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Created on July 28, 2021

Text:

Paul Krüger

Photos:

RM Sotheby's

46

Toyota

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McLaren/Werk

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Toyota Automobile Museum

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A case for lepidopterists: Toyota Sera with butterfly doors

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The Toyota Sera was based on the Starlet small car.

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It is somewhat reminiscent of the Opel Tigra presented in 1994.

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The Sera shown here was built in 1993 and is therefore a Phase III model.

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Round shapes, low headlights and a small radiator grille ensure low air resistance.

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Corolla, Carina and Camry looked much more conservative in 1990.

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McLaren engineer Gordon Murray was inspired by the Sera for the doors of the legendary F1.

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Practical in tight parking spaces: the butterfly doors only require 43 cm of space to the side.

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In 1990, a Japanese sports car absolutely needed a continuous light strip at the rear.

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Lifetime guarantee against rusting through: the tailgate is made entirely of glass.

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Phase III: From June 1992, the Sera had a spoiler with an integrated brake light at the rear.

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The garish paint color is simply called "turquoise", code 746.

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The Toyota Sera was one of the first production cars with ellipsoid headlights.

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Steel wheels with hubcaps were standard. These 14-inch alloy wheels were available as an option.

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Flooded with light: the almost pillarless glass dome allows plenty of light - and warmth - into the interior.

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The small window in the door can be retracted electrically. This means you don't always have to open the door when you want to take a parking ticket.

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A hand flatterer: there is not a single sharp edge on the Toyota Sera.

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The unusually shaped front gap reveals that these are no ordinary doors.

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Sera lettering on the B-pillar. The "tare bar" was always painted black.

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No reaching for the shelf: the Sera shares its door openers with no other Toyota model.

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The exterior mirrors are also exclusive to Sera.

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Carglas capitulates, Carglas gives up: The curved side windows extend almost to the middle of the roof. Woe betide you if they break.

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Powerful gas struts hold the doors open. There is a second damper in the door to compensate for temperature fluctuations.

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The 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine comes from the Toyota Paseo and produces 110 hp.

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The four-valve engine is designed more for good pulling power than maximum performance. EFI stands for Electronic Fuel Injection.

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Auto Motor und Sport attested to the 5E-FHE engine's "clear temperamental weaknesses at upper engine speeds".

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The type plate is located on the bulkhead in the engine compartment. Interesting: chassis number 16146, although according to Toyota only 15,941 Sera were built.

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Everything in the interior also follows the organic design language of the nineties. Just as typical: garish patterns for the seats and carpets.

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The Sera was only available as a right-hand drive model. A few made it to England and Australia because of this.

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The gray interior of the Phase 3 models looks a little drab. Early Sera models had beige or bluish interiors.

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No danger to the head: the entrance is not as narrow as it appears in this photo.

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Sports seats with integrated head restraints. The seat center panels of Phase III are colour-coordinated with the paintwork.

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Yes, the Sera has rear seats. However, they are only suitable for transporting passengers to a limited extent. It's better to fold the bench down and have more luggage space.

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Around 90 percent of all Toyota Sera were ordered with a four-speed automatic transmission.

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Airbags were only available from June 1992 - and then only at extra cost.

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Four instruments must be sufficient to monitor the vehicle.

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Almost Italian: speedometer scaling with numbers that follow the curvature.

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The air conditioning was on board as standard. The large glass dome heats up considerably in the sun.

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A CD compartment was far from a matter of course in the early 90s. The WARP button toggles between casual and funky mode.

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Translation not necessary: almost all Toyota Sera were registered in Japan.

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Ergonomic: the door openers are tilted backwards by 45 degrees.

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Two tweeters and two mid-range speakers are integrated into the large console on the parcel shelf.

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The position of the loudspeakers can be adjusted. In "Casual Mode", they are directed towards the front of the passenger compartment. In "Funky Mode", they emit sound through the rear window.

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30 times as expensive, six times as powerful, twice as fast: the McLaren F1

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Doesn't this door and window arrangement look familiar?

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The Sera in an early press photo. Blurred behind it: a Toyota Carina.

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The spectacular gates steal the show from many a super sports car.

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The Sera color par excellence is called "Greenish Yellow Mica"

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Cockpit of a Phase I model with Super Live Sound System

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The Toyota AXV-II presented in 1987 is already very similar to the future Sera.

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Clumsily gliding into the world: Toyota Palette from 1983

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The Toyota Starlet of the P80 model formed the technical basis of the Sera.

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Summary

From the outset, the Toyota Sera was intended purely as a fun car for young buyers. So little practical use was required that it was not even given conventional doors, but was allowed to stretch its wings skywards like butterflies. This article tells the story of the Toyota Sera and shows it in many current and contemporary photos.

This article contains the following chapters

Why not?
The "Young Project"
A winged show car
Futuristic shell, down-to-earth technology
Sera in series production
Let's get funky
Transport coupé
Doors that set an example

Estimated reading time: 7min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Rational decisions are usually the most sensible. They have a clearly defined goal, lead straight to it, are comprehensible and are not usually met with incomprehension. But they are not really fun. Even Roberto Blanco knew that a little bit of it is necessary every now and then. And that's why Toyota engineers locked all common sense in the glove compartment in the mid-1980s and built a car based solely on the pleasure principle - although the Japanese company had not exactly attracted attention up to that point (with the exception of the 2000 GT) for its exuberant automotive passion. The result of this experiment was called the Toyota Sera and was basically a crazy concept car, a finger exercise by the designers far removed from any design or financial constraints, which went into series production almost 1:1. The motto was: Why design, construct, produce, market and sell a car that has no practical use? Counter question: Why not? Exactly. So off you go! And looking back, it was a good thing that someone at Toyota asked this counter-question, because otherwise a super sports car that is still considered one of the best and most consistent today might have looked very different. But more of that later.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

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