The Toyota Land Cruiser is an automotive icon that over the course of half a century has built a reputation for having legendary off-road capabilities and desert-crossing dependability. The FJ60 Land Cruiser of the 1980s was powered by a notoriously bulletproof inline-6, but Toyota just swapped out that engine for a modern Tundra’s recall-plagued twin-turbocharged V6 in the brand’s latest SEMA Show custom car, dubbed the Turbo Trail Cruiser. Admittedly though, despite the questionable reliability of the new engine, the Turbo Trail Cruiser is an exceptionally well-done restomod that has nearly double the output of the FJ60’s original inline-6, it looks badass, has a great name, and it retains that car’s factory 5-speed manual transmission.
Beyond the engine swap, Toyota also lifted the FJ60 1.5 inches, fitted chunky 35-inch tires, reversed its front shackles, and fitted a modern JBL stereo with a massive touchscreen tablet mounted on the dashboard in the truck’s otherwise original interior. One of the goals of this project was to retain the classic looks of the 1985 FJ60 while giving it modern power and drivability, and on those fronts, it looks to be a smashing success.Â
Overall, the Turbo Trail Cruiser is a sweet build
Despite the reliability concerns surrounding Toyota’s new i-FORCE V6, it’s hard to argue with its 389 horsepower and 479 pounds-feet of torque. The legend of the Land Cruiser doesn’t exist because the truck was ever particularly powerful or fast, so dropping this powerfully modern engine under the classic hood of a 1985 likely gives the Turbo Trail Cruiser some significant shove.
Toyota says it’s connected to the original bell housing of the Land Cruiser’s factory five-speed manual transmission, which didn’t even require any additional cuts into the car’s firewall. It did, however, require custom motor mounts and a custom adapter plate to mate the new engine to that original transmission. The twin-turbocharged V6 now breathes through a custom exhaust which Toyota says provides “an aggressive exhaust note,” and it’s all kept cool thanks to a new heat exchanger that’s wired with a custom wiring harness that should ensure factory-quality drivability.
Toyota
Marty Schwerter, Toyota Motorsports Garage director of operations and the lead builder of the Turbo Trail Cruiser project said, “the Turbo Trail Cruiser is about showing what happens when Toyota’s modern performance technology is integrated into one of our most iconic classics. It’s a hot-rod approach with Toyota DNA — power, drivability, and reliability in a package that still feels true to the original Land Cruiser.” Overall, the most remarkable thing about this build is how original the whole thing looks; there are no obvious external cues and minimal interior cues that give away the twin-turbocharged secret under the classic hood of this restomod.
