Classic Car Catalogue

Toyota 1956

Master  
Crown  
Land Cruiser  

Japan

In 1956 it was breaking records at 46,417 cars produced.
On September 22 a prototype people's car unveiled at Koromo Plant.

 

Master

wb: 2530 mm 1453 cc
55 hp
 
     

  


Masterline; 6 pages brochure.
 

Crown

           
           

  


Toyopet Crown

Tokyo Motor Show in April.
May 1956 Wheels (Australia)
Japan to invade world markets with people's car
Fantastic as it may seem, Japan can't make cheap cars.
The government has ordered that things must change.


  JAPAN'S new "Toyopet" family saloon points the way to her invasion of foreign markets. She intends to produce the answer to such cars as the Volkswagen.
  Yet up till 1937, Japan mass-produced no cars, although the factories produced everything else from fountain pens to battleships.
  By Government order, a motor industry was established just before the war. At the end of the war American occupation troops forbade manufacture until 1949.
  Then the industry started to build both private and commetial cars. By 1953 output had risen to 7,108 vehicles a year and the Nisson Motor Company signed an agreement with Austins, of England, to build the A40 Somerset under licence.
  But even as late as 1953, Japanese cars were dated in appearence and mechanical features. Despite a Government order that the domestic industry was to be encouraged, few Japanese officials would drive a home-produced car. Even Ministers found an excuse to use imported products.
  But now there has been a revolution in motor firms. The Toyota Motor Company led the field by designing a model so American it might easily have slipped off a Detroit assembly line. For 1956 the same company have produced the Toyopet "Crown" De Luxe, a four-cylinder, 6-passenger sedan.
  The 1,450 c.c. engine develops 48 b.h.p. at 4,000 r.p.m.-enough to propel the large car at 62 m.p.h. Unfavorable power-to-weight ratio gives the car a sluggish performance, but ecomy. It gives 32 m.p.g., welcome feature in a country where petrol costs 6/6 a gallon. Every feature is conventional and up-to-the-minute, from the hydraulic shock absorbers to the hypoid rear axle.
  More interesting still is the announcement that the same company will produce a "people's-car" with which to invade world markets.
  The project started in June last year when me Minister of International Trade and Industry ordered the motor trade to produce a "cheap but efficient car to sell for about 250,000 yen (£A315) in view of the fact that the medium-sized cars being manufactured are too expensive to be widely ownef."
  The Ministry laid down certain specifications and conditions of manufacture which are similar to those ordered by Hitler when he commisioned Dr. Porsche to design a people's car. Only one Japanese firm responded with a design which met the Ministry approval.
  But the new car des not come close to the price. It will cost about £656, when the production rate is 1,200 units a month. The manufacturers, however, say that the price win fall to arounf £350 on greater volume.
  The demand is not likely to come from Japan. Toyota Motors say that the car could be afforded by anyone earning more than 700,000 yen anually, but only 310,000 people in the country earn this kind of money. They a mostly professional men and factory managers and already have a motor car.
  So if Japan wants big volume for her new car she must turn to the teeming Eastern markets which lie to the south. But observers say that despite huge populations, demand might not be as expected. Few can afford cars.
 

Land Cruiser

    6 cyl. ohv
3.9 l.
133 hp
     
    FJ 20      

  

 

 

           
           

  


Prototyp z silnikiem typu boxer i przednim napędem. (może być inny rocznik)