That is a painful sight to behold.

Japanese Nostalgic Car had the news today: a beautiful Toyota 2000GT, Japan's original supercar, and one of just 351 ever built, was destroyed when a massive 98-foot beech tree fell on it in a freak accident in the Toyoma Prefecture's Gokoyama area.

NHK reports (with video) that the tree, 6.2 feet in diameter at its thickest point, was rotten inside. The 28-year-old driver suffered cuts to his arms and legs but otherwise escaped essentially unscathed—a remarkable fact itself, given how mangled the car is.

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The 2000GT looks to be a total loss, but when it comes to vehicles this rare, a restoration attempt can never be ruled out. In May of 2013, this spotless left-hand-drive example sold for $1.15 million:

Clearly, the incentive to fix the car should be there. If this particular example can't be restored, the remainingYamaha-built sports cars just got that much more rare, and that much more valuable.

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Most of the world got its first real taste of the 2000GT in the Japan-set 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice. In it, the car appears as a convertible, a configuration that was never offered to the public. Toyota built two custom open cars for the film because, legend has it, Sean Connery was too tall to fit in the fixed-roof coupe. Here's the excellent chase sequence from the film:

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