Brian Long - Lexus

First printed in hardback format in 2000.

First published in ebook format 2016 by Veloce Publishing Limited, Veloce House, Parkway Farm Business Park, Middle Farm Way, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 3AR, England Fax 01305 250479 e-mail .

Ebook edition ISBN: 978-1-787110-32-8

Hardback edition ISBN: 978-1-901295-81-8

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Contents

PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is hard to believe that this is now the fourth Toyota book I have written, but in many ways it is the most satisfying. Ever since I was given the chance to experience the LS400 when the Lexus marque first burst onto the scene in the UK, I have to admit my rather cynical views on Japanese cars changed forever.

As a typical Englishman, I had all too readily dismissed anything from the Land of the Rising Sun as cheap and lacking in pedigree. I had been used to driving cars from Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz on an everyday basis, and was obsessed by Alfa Romeo, Porsche and Maserati sports cars - how could anything from Japan compare?

After that first trip in the LS400, I was very impressed, and had no qualms about telling everyone I came into contact with about how good it was. Shortly after, a run in the Infiniti Q45 reinforced my admiration for Japans strength in engineering and attention to detail. As a young motoring author (at least I was young then!), I could now take a fresh look at what Japan had produced down the years.

The most surprising thing for me was how ill-informed we are in Europe. Apart from the exploits of Honda in F1, which had rightfully received a lot of attention in the Press, the Japanese manufacturers had produced a whole string of sports-racing machinery that was almost unknown outside their country of origin. In addition, on the road car side, I found dozens of desirable models from the Sixties and Seventies that no-one had ever heard of.

While the Americans were much quicker to realize the qualities of Japanese cars, the Lexus story remains one of triumph over adversity. The success of the marque is a tribute to the determination of the Toyota engineers and stylists to produce the ultimate in luxury motoring.

This book traces the first ten years of the Lexus brand, and would not have been possible without the help of many people. I would like to give a special thank you to my friend Yoshihiro Inomoto; as the worlds best technical artist, it is an honour to be able to use some of his drawings. Not only that, but because of his special links with Lexus, he did an awful lot of work behind the scenes, for which I am extremely grateful.

I would also like to thank Toshio Bando of Toyotas Lexus Division in America for providing me with a great deal of archive material, as well as fellow RJC member Hideo Aoki, and Yoji Yamamoto. As always, my wife Miho did a sterling job translating conversations and the piles of paperwork I put in front of her, helped on the technical side by our friend Tetsuya Goto. Thanks also to Toyota in Japan and England, and to Peter Hunter of the Toyota Enthusiasts Club, who came to the rescue once again as gaps appeared in my research material.

Brian Long

Chiba, Japan

Dedicated to Yoshihiro Inomoto - The Cutaway King

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOYOTA

Instead of avoiding competition with Ford and Chevrolet, we will develop and mass-produce a car that incorporates the strong points of both, and that can rival foreign cars in performance ... and price. - Kiichiro Toyoda.

The Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Limited was established in 1926 in Kariya, near Nagoya. Sakichi Toyoda, who founded the company, duly introduced a number of improvements in weaving machinery, and made a small fortune granting the patent rights to a firm in England. As a motoring enthusiast, Sakichi earmarked a substantial amount of this money to enable his son, Kiichiro, to set up a car building department.

Japan was a long way behind the automobile-producing countries of Europe and America. Indeed, it wasnt until 1907 that the first petrol-engined Japanese car was produced. Even then, much of the chassis technology employed on the Yoshida Type 3 (better-known by its nickname, the Takuri) had been borrowed from French manufacturers, and two of the ten built were powered by twin-cylinder units imported from the States.

Kiichiro Toyoda - the founder of the Toyota Motor Company.

The 1936 Toyoda Model AA Sedan, Toyotas first production car. A drophead version, designated the Model AB and powered by the same 3389cc six cylinder engine, was also available.

However, by the time of the First World War, the fledgling Japanese industry was starting to find its feet. Shintaro Yoshida, the man behind the Takuri, had introduced a series of vehicles under the auspices of the Tokyo Automobile Works, including his countrys first four cylinder model, which appeared in 1911.

It was in 1911 that Masujiro Hashimoto founded the Kaishinsha Motor Car Works - the origin of the Datsun marque; later, a merger led to the formation of the Nissan Motor Company. Meanwhile, in 1912, Ohta was established in Tokyo, and a few years after, the first Mitsubishi was built.

Despite this period of growth, there were still very few cars in Japan, even during the 1920s. Indeed, a survey conducted in 1923 showed that there were less than 13,000 vehicles on the road at the time, and almost all of these were American, initially brought into the country to get it mobile again following the massive Kanto earthquake of that year.

A few more manufacturers joined the ranks, such as Ishikawajima (the forerunner of Isuzu) and Otomo, but by the end of the decade, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all had a strong foothold. Indeed, such was their dominance in the Japanese market that both Ford and GM established their own assembly plants, in Yokohama and Osaka respectively.

It was against this background that Kiichiro Toyoda joined the motor industry. Born in June 1894, Kiichiro had studied Mechanical Engineering at the Tokyo Imperial University, and also visited a number of American and European car manufacturers before commencing his career.

His first project, which he started in 1930, was the construction of a 4hp two cylinder engine. Based on a Smith power unit from America, this fairly modest beginning signified the birth of the Toyota automobile empire.