Quote:
Originally Posted by Grant-53
They spent time figuring the best angle for the windshield too. Brock went on to campaign Datsuns in SCCA. My first slot car as a teen was an HO Daytona coupe and I went on to do club racing. Saw both the GT-40 and Mark IV up close at Watkins Glen.
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In 1965, BMW 507 fame designer Albercht Goetz first designed the Nissan 2000GT with Yamaha but Nissan objected the production costs. Toyota partnered with Yamaha took over, and produced the Nozaki-designed halo car, Toyota 2000GT.
Pete Brock (BRE, Brock Racing Enterprises) was contracted by Japanese truck manufacturer Hino to hot rod & race their Contessa coupe. Brock's little Japanese Contessa cars dominated the competition, the first winning success for Japanese cars. Ecstatic, Hino gave him a race program. In 1967, Brock designed the gorgeous Samurai GT for LeMans. A state-of-the-art aero design, first to have a driver-controlled rear ring airfoil!
Toyota purchased Hino and derailed Brock's Hino Samurai GT from racing the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix - because Toyota did not have anything to compete with it. Toyota immediately signed Brock to their US racing program of the 2000GT. Ford had just quit auto racing altogether, leaving Shelby at the top of the game without a race program. Carrol approached Toyota and stole the 2000GT race program from BRE! Brock still produced another achingly beautiful design for Toyota's Le Mans entry, the BRE-JP6 GT endurance racer. It was sent back to Japan and disappeared.
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Furious with Carroll Shelby and Toyota, Peter Brock approached Datsun with a promise to destroy Shelby's Toyota 2000GT race program. He was given Datsun 2000 roadsters, 240Zs and 510s that won races and won championships. Shelby's Toyota 2000GTs did not qualify in national competition, embarrassed Toyota quit and did not race again for 10 years!
BRE Datsuns kicked Shelby's & Toyota's asses!
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