Have you ever found yourself in the same room with a piece so important to automotive history that you could not believe you were actually there?
In August 2024 I went to the Louwman Museum in The Hague.
The most interesting thing on display?
The 1936 Toyoda AA
But "why is this old, rotten car, an exciting view?" you may ask.
Simply put, this is way more important and rare than any exotic hypercar money can buy.
A real "a one of a kind" car in the entire world.
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This is the first passenger car ever produced by Toyota, and
Until 2008, it was believed that there were no remaining units in existence.
So much so, that Toyota has one in their museum.
But is actually a replica.
This very unit in front of my eyes is the sole "surviving car" known.
Toyota's replica in their museum is not even a "properly built" one either.
It’s different than how the company built it originally, as it cannot ever be built like that again due to information loss.
It's considered to be a "best effort".
The original blueprints and instructions of how to make a Toyoda AA from scratch, as well as people who work or knew about it, are forever gone.
They gathered knowledge from different documents and did their best to recreate one.
Looks pretty good though.
The fact that something as important as "how to build one of your cars" has no trace of instructions left absolutely blows my mind.
This one is kept exactly as it was found.
Not restored in any way.
This unit's story
The known story of this unique unit starts in 2008.
A family in Russia, near the city of Vladivostok, came across this authentic "barn find".
Louwman Museum bought it from the grandson of the original owners who had it since World War II.