When the decision was made to use 2000GT as a Bond's car in You Only Live Twice, the filmmakers faced the problem of fitting 6'2" Sean Connery into its not so spacious interior.

The first iteration of designs to solve this involved a modified Targa top body - a semi-convertible body style with a removable roof section and a full width roll bar behind the seats. Unfortunately with just two weeks left before filming was due to start, the ambitious and time-consuming designs have been abandoned, and the roofs of two Toyotas have been just chopped of resulting in the convertibles we know from the movie.

The Targa version remained on paper until 1984, when enthusiast Ed Pessin of Culver City, California commissioned Richard Billings of Los Angeles to create a one-of-a-kind example of the car based on the original Toyota sketch. The car was later auctioned off by RM Auctions in 2010 for €204,843.

A small, three-photo gallery can be seen on the Supercars.Net website - just use the right arrow to go to the next image - and more images with a bit of backstory are available at Boldride.com.

I have to admit, for me this look even better than original coupe and an order of magnitude more impressive than Bond's convertible.

I guess the question of the day now is whether someone will be brave enough (or mad enough) to build the DeAgostini Toyota 2000GT with the same modifications?