Pete Brock left Shelby around the time the GT40s came in, and eventually hooked up with the president of Hino Motor Company in Japan. He was tasked with developing their racing program to showcase their product to Americans and was reasonably successful with the Contessa. So they gave him a budget to develop a mid-engined sports racer for the Japanese Grand Prix and eventually Le Mans in 1967.
The car couldn't pass inspection at Le Mans and the president of Hino died. Toyota bought Hino and wanted to run Toyota 2000GTs, but hired Carroll Shelby to do it. So Brock went to work with Datsun and his legend grew. The Samurai passed into the hands of West Coast SCCA sports racers where it saw action until around 1971.
Ebbro has also done a version of this car.
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