As you well know, Yamaha is one of the top manufacturers of pianos and other musical instruments in the world, and certainly the premier Japanese marque.
What you might not know is that they're responsible for the way Lexus ' LFA V10 supercar sounds.
I wonder if you can play Christmas carols on this thing. Probably not "Silent Night."
Founded in 1887 in a city to the west of Tokyo, Yamaha's early origins were, as anticipated, as a maker of pianos and reed organs. When the Second World War rolled around, they, like most other Japanese industrial concerns, turned to the manufacture of war materiel. In particular, they made parts for aircraft like the iconic Mitsubishi Zero.
As post-war Japan rebuilt and grew, there was an increased demand for transportation. In 1954, Yamaha began building its first motorcycle, the YA-1. Nicknamed the "Red Dragonfly," which is just about the coolest name ever, Yamaha's first motorcycle was essentially a copy of a German DKW, but had a few extra enhancements like a four-speed transmission. It had a two-stroke 125 cc engine, and soon began winning races in Japan, including a hill-climb up Mount Fuji.
A decade later, Yamaha was an established builder of motorcycles and other small engines. Their first car, on the other hand, would be something special.
Extremely rare, the Toyota 2000GT is widely considered the first Japanese supercar. A convertible version featured in the 1967 Bond flick, You Only Live Twice introduced the world to the idea that Japanese cars could be more than just the fuel-efficient shoeboxes everyone was used to.
The 2000GT was sleek and curvaceous; somewhere between an early Ferrari and a Jaguar E-Type. Toyota was extremely proud of it. The only thing is that they didn't build it - Yamaha did.
Contracted to produce a sporting car, it was Yamaha that ended up manufacturing the 350 examples of this two-seater sportscar, taking the 2.0-litre six-cylinder engine from a Toyota Crown sedan and turning it into a high-revving screamer. The company's expertise in metallurgy and small engines helped them extract power by specially machining the heads, and a legend was born.
Toyota would get the credit, but Yamaha's partnership with Japan's largest company would bear other fruit. The firstgeneration Celica GT would have a four-cylinder fine-tuned by Yamaha, as would the motor that would eventually find its way into the first-generation MR2.
In 1986, Yamaha's expertise left Japan and made its way overseas to end up in a very unlikely place - under the hood of a pedestrian American family sedan. Looking for a way to add some excitement to their new Taurus, Ford contracted Yamaha to build an engine.
The result was a 3.0-litre V-6 with a unique variablelength intake manifold and the eventual creation of the Taurus SHO (for Super High Output). On its debut in 1989, it made a very respectable 220 horsepower, redlined at 7,000 rpm, and propelled Ford's front-driver from zero-100 kilometres/hour in a little more than six seconds - comparable with a BMW M5 at the time.
The SHO engine is a masterpiece, and surprisingly beautiful with its snaking intake manifolds. As it was symmetrical in layout, it fitted both the Taurus's transverse application, and could also be crammed into a longitudinal mounting.
Ford built a few smallproduction cars with the SHO installed, including a one-off manual Ranger pickup truck, a station wagon, and a few very low-weight Mercury Sables, which were only ever sold in Canada.
These weighed hundreds of kilograms less than the SHO thanks to an allaluminum body.
Interesting, but nowhere near as radical as the ultimate application of Yamaha's American-V-6, the Shogun. Special Editions, a company temporarily founded by customizers Rick Titus and Chuck Beck, took the humblest of econoboxes and turned them into samurai warriors.
The recipe was simple: take one lightweight Ford Festive hatchback; throw away the rear seats; stuff in 220 h.p. high-revving V-6; add huge fender flares and big, sticky tires; enjoy. Just seven of these scary-fast machines were made, one of which now resides in Jay Leno's garage.
Yamaha would next move into Formula One racing, providing V-12 engines from 1989 to 1997. These were 3.5-litres in displacement, and revved into the stratosphere to make upwards of 400 h.p. Yamaha started thinking about doing another supercar.
The result was the doomed OX99-11, built entirely from carbon-fibre, and with jet-fighter-style 2+2 tandem seating. It was weird, it was horribly expensive, it was blisteringly fast, and they only ended up building three.
Returning to its Toyotaenhancing roots, Yamaha would fettle the fourbangers in the turbocharged MR2 and rally-special Celica GTS-Four. They would also end up making the 1.8-litre screamer that went in the highestperforming GT-S trim of the last-generation Celica.
This four-cylinder would find a home in the midsection of the Lotus Elise and Exige, and provides these lightweight specials with some signature Yamaha high-rev hijinks. Another British car to bear the Yamaha touch is the lesserknown Noble: their latest twin-turbo M600 has a 4.4-litre sourced from Volvo, but it was Yamaha that helped the Swedes develop their eight-cylinder.
However, Yamaha's current crown jewel, the one that really brings out the figgy pudding, is the aforementioned V-10 in the Lexus LFA. Toyota wanted their outrageous supercar to sound like a F1 racer, and Yamaha knew all too well how to play that tune - they designed the heads and created the 10-cylinder's signature sound.
The LFA is on the way out, but Lexus is still forging ahead, and there are rumours of the return of a potential Toyota Supra. Toyota might be currently battling it out in a sales numbers game, but when it comes to performance, they know where to turn if they want to drop a piano on the competition.
