The Toyota Sera Is The Bizarre Sports Coupe That Never Came To America

The Sera first appeared as a supermini concept car known as the AXV-II at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1987. It was meant to show where the future of car design was headed. After being well received, Toyota made some adjustments and released it as the Sera in March 1990. The term “Sera” is the future tense of the French word être (to be) and was picked because Toyota felt it signified “a dream-like car that takes us into the future” (via Toyota UK Magazine).

The Sera was like many other cars. As Doug DeMuro points out in his deep dive video, it looks like the Nissan NX or a Mazda MX3. The front-wheel drive car had small wheels, tires, and a sixteen-valve, 1.5-liter inline-four banger (108 hp) under the hood. But the Sera came with a few significant differences that set it apart from every other car on the road.

First, it had funky gull-wing doors, a first for a mass-produced Japanese car. Even more impressive: It somehow inspired Gordon Murray when he went to develop the McLaren F1 supercar (via Toyota UK Magazine). Sticking a feature only previously seen on luxury cars, race cars, or high-end supercars was head-scratching, but it set the tone for the car’s overall fun factor.

A byproduct of the gull-wing doors was that, when combined with the all-glass rear hatch, there was an all-encompassing wrap-around glass cabin reminiscent of a jet fighter. Sure, you’d get baked like a lobster, but at it came with air conditioning and power windows. Additionally, two insert panels came with the car that could be attached to the top of the doors (effectively the roof), where the sun was the most intense.