What’s Your Favorite Fact From Automotive History?

If you have at any time performed bar trivia, you know that the solution to achievements outside of your wildest desires (successful a single drink ticket for each team member) is to know a bunch of random awesome points. But practically nothing in the earth feels even worse than becoming the person on a group for a precise group and coming up blank on a important query. So, to help save your facial area to your close friends, we’re below to assure you hardly ever pass up out on automotive trivia — and to crowdsource an internet’s truly worth of details.
Yesterday, while studying for a blog site about the Carroll Shelby-tuned Toyota 2000GT that just bought at auction, I was reminded about the other early race-prepped Toyota of legend: The yellow-and-eco-friendly Yatabe document setter. Back again in 1966, Toyota introduced out a lightly-modified 2000GT to established an endurance history at the famed Yatabe examination observe. 72 several hours later on, it experienced set thirteen.
The car or truck averaged above 125 miles per hour for a few times, environment data for just about every single distance and time interval on the way. That initial 2000GT was finally misplaced to a fire, but Toyota now has a duplicate in its museum steady.
Yatabe, however, didn’t die out really so speedily. Individuals of you who grew up, like I did, actively playing the incredibly eloquently titled Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition REMIX likely bear in mind the identify, but may not know the cars of the real Mid Evening Racing Group. The team was mostly acknowledged for its underground Wangan racing, but it way too frequented Yatabe to see what members’ autos ended up created of. The best document nonetheless detailed? 203.3 miles per hour, from an R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R.
Visits to Yatabe, and the speeds realized at that historic monitor, are some of my beloved random automotive details. But, I’m here to find out as much as I preach — what are your most loved facts on four wheels? We’ll collect your major responses this afternoon, so be one of a kind!