The car that inspired the McLaren F1's doors. And the Mercedes S-Class's air freshener...
Car geeks, on your marks, get set… Question: what is the link between the McLaren F1 and the Toyota Sera? Answer: reportedly, there was a Sera parked not far from Gordon Murray’s home that he would drive past most days. This led to him borrowing one and using it as the inspiration for the F1’s dihedral doors. Come on, that’s a good fact, isn’t it?
Another thing that’s bizarre, and something I was also unaware of, was the byzantine nature of Toyota’s Japanese dealerships. The Sera is a JDM car, and you could only buy it through Toyota Corolla Stores. Now, when you think of a dealership network, normally it’s a range of franchised operations all selling broadly the same products from a manufacturer’s catalogue. Makes sense - but that’s not how it worked for Toyota in Japan.
So it went on. Corolla Store was formed to deal with sales of the Starlet. Or was it the Corolla? No, I am sure it was the Corolla. And as more cars came along, these stores would add selected new models to their inventory. In the end there were four stores: the above three plus Netz Store, and that’s where you went for a Yaris or a C-HR. So in Japan, as prospective customer, you had to work out which make of car you wanted, and, if that was a Toyota, which Toyota it was.
However, while it was ordinary underneath the Sera was audacious up top. It had those eye-catching butterfly-wing doors and above the door line it was almost entirely made of glass. It was like sitting in an upturned goldfish bowl. This wasn’t entirely practical, though. To make it structurally safe, the B-pillar had to be beefed so much it was very fat, which created quite a blind spot next to the driver’s head.
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