Home » The Mazda T2000 Really Screws With Your Sense Of Scale: Cold Start

The Mazda T2000 Really Screws With Your Sense Of Scale: Cold Start

Cs Mazda2000 1
ADVERTISEMENT

Looking at that picture of that three-wheeled truck up there, all the usual visual cues of what you likely understand about vehicles tells you that this should be some tiny thing. Some little Japanese three-wheeled truck. And, you’d be 2/3 correct – it’s Japanese, it’s a truck, but it’s not little. At all. That bed is 11 feet long! This thing is a beast! And yet it’s still a three-wheeler? What kind of madness is this?

Let’s look at this thing again:

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Cs Mazda T2000 2

Those are some big-ass logs those two guys are considering shoving in the back of this thing! And look at this – that’s a Toyota 2000GT in the bed of this one that was being auctioned off in Japan a few years back:

Cs Mazda T2000 4

ADVERTISEMENT

Aw, crap, wait, that’s a picture of a 1/32 -scale model. Still, the proportions are right. That’s like two levels of screwing with our sense of scale now!

Cs Mazdat2000 3

The Real T2000 was a genuinely big beast, especially for Japan. The under-seat-mounted four-cylinder two-liter engine (there was a 1500 version, too) made 81 horsepower, and could make 65 mph. They built these between about 1962 and 1972, and the reason they used the weird three-wheel configuration wasn’t for a shockingly tight turning circle or enhanced maneuverability – though both of those were true – but because Japan has tax laws that gave breaks to three-wheelers, apparently without any restrictions on size.

Here’s some videos of shorter=bed versions, so you can get a sense of the scale:

ADVERTISEMENT

 

I bet these are bonkers to drive. I’d love to try.

 

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
24 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Scott
Scott
1 year ago

I saw one of these in person (with a shorter bed maybe… I can’t recall) at the last JDM car show in Long Beach. It was impressive in its sheer oddity. 🙂 My fave at that show was a Honda Acty kei pickup in a beautiful shade of blue.

I took some photos but of course can’t find them now per usual. Plus, is it even possible to embed pix in a post? I dunno.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
1 year ago

“Aw, crap, wait, that’s a picture of a 1/32 -scale model. Still, the proportions are right. That’s like two levels of screwing with our sense of scale now!”
While it’s not related to sense of scale, another level of screwing with perception with that diorama is with all that iron oxide all over that Toyota 2000GT. Most if not all 2000GTs were aluminum-bodied though people were already producing replicas with steel bodywork in the 70s and 80s so that model could be seen as representing a vintage replica, hence the incongruously rusty 2000GT.

RentalCarGuy
RentalCarGuy
1 year ago

I’m pretty sure I saw quite gigantic three-wheelers frequently while in Beijing about ten years ago. Kinda like this thing here, which is over 4m long and has a 2.3 m x 1.5 m bed (more than F150 SuperCrew!), but even bigger.

Ron888
Ron888
1 year ago
Reply to  RentalCarGuy

Dont they have a bunch of weird and interesting machines! The one that amuses/amazes me most are the general purpose farm engines with built in headlight. They’d use them for everything, from stationary engines (where they look bizarre with the light) to walk-behind handle barred two-wheeled tractors.Then in that tractor form they’d use them for pulling massive trailers.

MrLM002
MrLM002
1 year ago

This is why Tax Avoidance > Tax Evasion

Trust Doesn't Rust
Trust Doesn't Rust
1 year ago
Reply to  MrLM002

I don’t say evasion, I say avoision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpEaFmK3lrY

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
1 year ago

I’ll bet if you had asked American car designers back then to come up with a competitor to the Reliant Regent, you’d have gotten basically this, except maybe with a V8 and air conditioning.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
1 year ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

A v8 making 67 HP and giving you 13 mpg unloaded.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
1 year ago

It’s funny to think that’s a Mazda. I saw the picture and immediately thought, did Piaggio make a school bus for India?

OrigamiSensei
OrigamiSensei
1 year ago

You really should have flagged the pic of the 2000GT on the back of the T2000 as NSFW Autopian porn.

A. Barth
A. Barth
1 year ago

Those are some big-ass logs those two guys are considering shoving in the back of this thing!

They could stack three or four of them behind the rear axle and do wheelies all over town.

It’s interesting to see the evolution here. This model has a simple and straightforward design, but the predecessor – the T1000 – had a hyperalloy combat chassis.

Erik Hancock
Erik Hancock
1 year ago
Reply to  A. Barth

I see what you did there…

StillNotATony
StillNotATony
1 year ago

If anyone ever says they’ve got a basic work truck, I’m going to show them a picture of this and mock them for having luxuries like four whole wheels.

Unclewolverine
Unclewolverine
1 year ago

Anybody else notice it looks like a full floater rear axle?

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
1 year ago

A: I would not be driving this on a bridge. B: How does braking work? C: Balancing your load properly must be really important.

Don’t drive this, Jason. Death can only be cheated so many times.

MATTinMKE
MATTinMKE
1 year ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

I feel like he used 6 of his 9 lives with those chainsaw shenanigans.

Dar Khorse
Dar Khorse
1 year ago

Those must have amazing payload capacity! I couldn’t find any actual specs, but this BAT listing says the 3 meter bed version is rated at over 4000 lbs payload: https://bringatrailer.com/2014/05/20/2-ton-rated-1968-mazda-t2000-trike/

With the high carrying capacity, and superb maneuverability, that’s the perfect farm truck.

Last edited 1 year ago by Dar Khorse
Anoos
Anoos
1 year ago
Reply to  Dar Khorse

A lot of roads around farms are just two worn ruts with a grass strip between them. This truck would require an entirely new central rut.

Dar Khorse
Dar Khorse
1 year ago
Reply to  Anoos

Yup, I’ve worked on farms and I don’t think it would be an issue. I was thinking of it more for use in the fields and orchards and such, though. This would be boss for driving through rows of trees picking up fruit, or for loading square bales of hay, etc.

FUCK YOU
FUCK YOU
1 year ago
Reply to  Anoos

Gives an excuse to finally get around to re-grading those roads, the diff on the old C10 can only take so many hits on that one rock out in the back section before Junior finally busts it open.

SCJeff
SCJeff
1 year ago
Reply to  Anoos

Central Rut would be a good band name.

Vetatur Fumare
Vetatur Fumare
1 year ago
Reply to  Dar Khorse

2 metric tons (2000kg); that’s what “2トン” means.

IRegertNothing, Esq.
IRegertNothing, Esq.
1 year ago

I wondered if it was a tax-related design, like Japan’s sub 2.0 liter V6s that were (still are?) made to avoid a tax penalty based on engine displacement. Engineers are like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. They will find a way.

FlavouredMilk
FlavouredMilk
1 year ago

Says so right in the article.

Edit: missed the past tense at the beginning there, but Japan really did create some wild cars to work around taxes.

Last edited 1 year ago by FlavouredMilk
24
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x