Toyota Heritage
The Japanese manufacturer’s big British shed
Strolling into the Crawley home of Toyota Heritage pulls you up short – the collection is huge. It shouldn’t be a surprise, the British back story of this iconic Japanese brand is extensive, 55 years deep to be precise. Driving the collection’s beautiful, right hand drive, 1967 Corona only focuses that realisation. It’s from another era and it exudes Sixties charm but, from the moment the door clunks shut, it also screams quality. Like every Toyota, it is built with ferocious attention to detail.
We meet Richard Seymor, who has worked his way up from a apprenticeship in 1978, to starting with
Toyota in 1990, to his current status looking after the growing heritage fleet. ‘It’s growing at an alarming rate to be honest, we’re going to need a bigger shed,’ he explains with a raised eyebrow. ‘The company has such a rich story and it’s ever changing. From the early groundbreakers to the Top Gear GT86S that we look after, once you decide to create a meaningful cross section of cars, the possibilities are almost endless.’
The heritage collection stands at 21 cars at the moment, but it won’t stop there.
‘They’re all taxed, serviced and ready to be driven, and that’s the point,’ he says, ‘it is an active collection and the ability to drive and experience all the cars is important. You can’t really tell the story of Toyota without it.’ We walk the lines of historic vehicles in a space that is spotlessly clean.
There is a small Lexus collection as well (Lexus is 30 years old would you believe) and even the MKI AND MKII Prius are present. ‘The Prius was a true groundbreaker and we have to respect its place in the history of the car even if it isn’t rip roaringly exciting.’ The we come face to face with the oldest car here. ‘The Corona is the old school classic star here and I love driving it. But all the cars have a radically varied flavour depending on the era that they are from and what their purpose was.’
You can come along and enjoy driving alongside
Toyota Heritage and their vehicles on the ‘Parallel Pom’ sister event to the VSCC’S Pomeroy Trophy. Bring your own classic Toyota along for a great day out – visit blog.toyota.co.uk and search ‘Pom’ to enter.
‘If I could take one car home from the collection it would be the Corona… or the iq… or the one of the GT86S!’ And what is Toyota on the look out for? ‘An early Hilux, a Seventies Celica or, obviously, a 2000 GT! Anything that is interesting really.’