Making cars FUN again

The world's first solar-power-only sportscar.

WHAT looks like a rare 1967 2000 GT is actually a cutting-edge vehicle powered by the constant 16-million-degree Kelvin nuclear burn that we know as the Sun.

It is the world’s first solar electric sports car that can do 200 km/h. It was built by Japan’s Crazy Car Project — a group of over 50 engineers and car enthusiasts led by Toyota — all to interest youngsters in cars again.

They displayed the 2000 GT SEV first at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January and then flew it across the Pacific to show muscle car fans at the Detroit car show how to go green in style.

The Crazy Car guys succeeded in their aim, for young and old stroked their GT SEV’s flanks on both sides of the Pacific.

This is how to pimp a veteran with respect.

Their project shows car restorers how to pimp with respect, and designers of electric cars that their creations need not look like slugs.

Respect

THE new 2000 GT SEV is not just about posing at car shows. The car site Gizmag.com reports that Ryuichi Katsumata, president of Chiba Toyopet, said the solar sportscar “needs to be driven, as keeping it in storage is disrespectful to this legendary vehicle”.

The original GT200

The legend started in 1965, when Yamaha built the GT2000 for Toyota. The company only built 337 models until 1970, plus two roofless editions to fit in Sean Connery’s six-foot-two frame in the fifth James Bond You Only Live Twice.

Katsuma said his dealership had found a battered body of one of the original GTs and gave it to the Crazy Car Project with the aim of restoring that “sense of excitement which old-time cars used to have”, according to the website.

Reading between the lines, the engineers hint that their day job, to make environmentally friendly and safe vehicles, has turned cars into a big yawn for younger generations.

Translated from Japanese, they state they had launched the GT SEV “in the purpose of making people feel an excitement of driving and to have a chance to think about our Earth in an innovative way”.

The rear window of the new 2000GT is a solar panel.
Note, no exhausts.

WHAT sets the new 2000 GT SEV apart from any other electric vehicle is that it has no socket to receive an electric current. It can only trickle-charge its 600V/35 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with sun rays soaked up by a solar panels mounted in the rear window and engine hood.

Twin exhausts made the original GT2000 howl, which sound
is now digitally remastered for the solar remake. 

While this makes the car so green it just about photosynthesises, the technology is not quite market-ready. For after reaching the top speed of 200 km/h, it takes two weeks of parking off under a blazing sun to recharge the battery fully.

But it is fun. To warn pedestrians, the quietly approaching 2000 GT SEV is no hallucination, the Crazy Guys installed a range of sounds from HaloSonic, which has the original 2000 GT’s engine howl and just for fun, a galloping horse, a spaceship, a train, a jet engine and animals like a meowing cat and a barking dog.