The radical super sports car from Toyota
With its increasing presence on the world market, Toyota also sought to be at the forefront of concept cars. In 1970, a wedge-shaped mid-engined sports car called the "EX-7" was presented at the Tokyo Motor Show, which was able to compete with the competition, e.g. in the form of the Mercedes C111 (1969) or Bizzarrini Manta (1968), both visually and technically.
A special feature was the rear-hinged folding doors, which opened upwards together with the roof section. A notchback was intended to satisfy the aerodynamic trends of the time. The prototype was only 1.05 meters high, 4.3 meters long and 1.84 meters wide, making it a truly flat flounder. It was painted in a shade of yellow, while the attached dark stripe visually connected the rear with the front.
The concept car was technically based on the Toyota 7 Group 7 racing car, which had been developed in collaboration with Yamaha, who had also worked on the Toyota 2000 GT, and featured a turbocharged V8 three-liter engine. For the sake of better drivability, the EX-7 road sports car did without the turbo, but there was still plenty of 450 road horsepower left over from the 800 racing horsepower. Even so, there were still enough racing genes left to make the car a serious rival to the sports car elite of the time.
After the obligatory appearances at motor shows, however, nothing more was heard of the Toyota super sports car; much smaller and more suitable for everyday use were baked for the series.
The pictures can of course also be foundin the Zwischengas archive.
