A while back we took the crew to the Toyota Museum in Torrance. I personally have been there a few times, but the guys had not. What made this visit bittersweet was the fact that Toyota is leaving SoCal for Dallas very soon. All that will remain of the huge campus will be a few offices that will oversee the West Coast distribution.

Lots of history here, which parallels my father’s storied career. Many of you know that dad started out as a technician South Bay Toyota after some friends put him in front of the boss at Toyota Headquarters. Dad’s favorite was the 2000GT. It was the untouchable car that his generation aspired to. We took a picture of Jasper in front of a CHP themed Avalon. Some of you may know Jasper used to be a police cadet. Art’s pictured in front of a NASCAR camry, no doubt one the first vehicles that Toyota competed with; kinda fitting considering Art’s story of coming to and being accepted by America has some parallels to Toyota’s & Dad’s story.

As a family though, we all wanted to take a picture in front of the original Toyota Van. Lite-ace as it was known in Japan, was our (& Toyota’s) first van in the USA. It was even the right color, a burgundy one, just like the one in our garage as a kid.