The prototype for the Sports 800, called the Publica Sports, debuted at the 1962 Tokyo Auto Show, featuring a space age sliding canopy and utilizing the 21 kW (28 hp; 29 PS) powertrain of the Publica 700, a Japanese market economy car.

The car had aerodynamic styling by Shozo Sato, a designer on loan from Datsun, and Toyota engineer Tatsuo Hasegawa.

Hasegawa had been an aircraft designer in World War II and the resulting Sports 800 was a lightweight and agile machine.

[citation needed] An air-cooled 790 cc horizontally opposed two-cylinder boxer engine powered the vehicle.

[6] Toyota produced a one-off prototype Sports 800 Gas Turbine Hybrid for the 1979 Tokyo Motor Show.