Toyota 2000GT (OT)

Very far off topic, but did you know that Yamaha - parent company of Steinberg, and the maker of fine musical instruments since the late 19th century - also played a pivotal role in the development of the Toyota 2000GT, which in terms of design changed the course of history for Toyota as a Japanese car manufacturer? Up to this point in the 1960s Toyotas were dull, dreary and dreadful (as well as unreliable). This car - though the actual production volume was very small, it was very expensive - changed all that. The design is absolutely gorgeous, the dashboard alone (and the dials) are a work of art.

Here’s an interesting video where Lain Tyrrell - he’s the Daniel Spreadbury of classic cars - goes into the details of the history of the car and its design, mentioning that there is a fine line between music instruments and high performance cars (“they are a form of wind instruments”). He should know as he a fine musician in his own right, who aside from restoring priceless classic cars, has also done many shows around the world as a singer.

Warning: this youtube channel is highly addictive.

Yamaha still produce interior wood panels and “stuff” for luxury cars. They have a lot of knowledge accumulated from their instrument production. They also make some really nice bathroom products :smiley:

Interesting. Yamaha is all over the place. Just read that Yamaha is the largest piano maker in the world, and not too long ago, they acquired Bosendorfer. I look around my house and there is Yamaha stuff all over the place. Guitar amp, studio monitor speakers, FM Amp/Receiver, 2 Steinberg interfaces, Cubase (of course), bass guitar, two acoustic guitars, and there used to be a DX-7 (which I gave away).

With the exception of the bass guitar, in which the active electronics failed, everything else has been working for a long time.

Makes me wonder about this 133 year old company. They got into audio electronics but stayed away from TV. They got into motorcycles, ski-mobiles, motorboats, but never cars as far as I know (at least directly). They started into chip manufacturing but stayed away from computers, phones, personal audio devices, etc.

Very cautious, but successful, I guess. A big company ($3.75B revenue last year) but not a leading tech company, even though they have leading tech in many of the areas they chose to lead in.

I remember there used to be Yamaha skis.

I could be wrong about the fields they didn’t venture into, but I would think a Yamaha laptop would have been great.