Toyota has a long history of sports car production going back to the ’60s, when Japanese buyers first started getting a taste for motorsports. In the decades since, the brand has unveiled a long list of sports cars models, many of which have gone on to garner dedicated fanbases. Toyota’s sports cars might not be famous for their looks in the same way as some of their European counterparts, but the brand has still churned out plenty of head-turning models over the years.
We think that these five models are among the brand’s best looking sports cars to date, although there are plenty of other good-looking Toyota models that didn’t make the list. We’ve only included models that have been sold with Toyota badges, and so good-looking sports cars from Lexus — including the brand’s only true supercar, the LFA — haven’t been included here. We’ve also excluded prototypes and concept cars, with these five good-looking models all being available for enthusiasts to buy from dealerships when they were new.
Toyota’s affordable mid-engined sports car arguably looked its best in its second generation, where its Euro-inspired design earned it the nickname the ‘poor man’s Ferrari.’ Like most of Toyota’s other great sports cars, the MR2 was compact and lightweight, which helped offset the fact that some of its engine choices weren’t particularly powerful. Nonetheless, the MR2 could still feel fast even if its performance numbers don’t match up to modern sports cars today, and it looked fast to boot.
Having a mid-engine design allows the MR2 to be as low-slung as possible, while the pop-up headlights add an extra dash of retro charm. While other good-looking Toyota sports cars like the 2000GT and MkIV Supra remain far out of reach for the average enthusiast, the SW20 MR2 is still affordably priced. According to Hagerty, a 1990 MR2 Turbo in good condition is worth $20,600 at the time of writing. In a way, that still makes it the ‘poor man’s Ferrari’ today, although today’s buyers are more likely to be cross-shopping it with other JDM classics of the same era than hankering after Italian exotics.
Every sports car in Toyota’s lineup owes its existence to the brand’s dedicated performance car, the 2000GT. The history of the 2000GT involves not one but two manufacturers: Toyota and Yamaha. Toyota was responsible for designing, testing, and selling the car, but it was manufactured at a Yamaha facility, since Toyota didn’t have room on its production line to accommodate a low-volume model.
The 2000GT was unlike any Japanese car before it, both in its looks and in its performance. It was also pricier than any previous model to emerge from the country, which hampered its sales success. In total, only 351 examples of the car were sold between 1967 and 1970, and even fewer are known to survive today.
The car’s smooth, flowing bodywork gives it a timeless look, while its compact proportions set it further apart from other sports cars on the market at the time. It was so small, in fact, that when it made an appearance in the James Bond film
5 Of The Best Looking Toyota Sports Cars Ever Made
