Not exactly the best-known superhero in the DC universe, Blue Beetle was recently propelled into the mainstream by a DC Studious movie distributed by Warner Bros. Released on August 15, the film obviously flopped at the box office. Through October 29, it grossed a meager $129.3 million worldwide, of which $72.5 million came from ticket sales in the United States and Canada.
The lowest-grossing movie in the DC Extended Universe yet, Blue Beetle stars a hero truck in the form of a Toyota Tacoma. Rather than owning up to its mistake of partnering with Warner Bros. for a B+ movie at best, Toyota decided to cross-promote the film at the 2023 SEMA Show by means of a customized Taco. Ostentatiously crass, the manual-equipped truck wears Blue Beetle graphics from Complete Customs.
Equipped with 18-inch aluminum wheels and tube-style steps, the pickup further sweetens the deal with… uh… nothing else remotely worth mentioning. Built by the Calty Design Research studio in California, this pickup falls pretty short of being a true SEMA build.
Its aesthetic isn’t even close to Marty McFly’s 1985 Toyota SR5, a pickup that has been replicated by a whole lotta truck and Back to the Future fans over the years. Displayed in central hall at booth number 22200, the Blue Beetle Tacoma is an alright pickup as long as you disregard the look-at-me wrap.
Better said, the 2024 model year Tacoma is a tremendous upgrade from the N300 generation before it. For starters, it rocks the Toyota New Global Architecture – Frame platform for body-on-frame applications, an architecture shared with the Land Cruiser 300, Prado, Sequoia, Tundra, LX, and GX.
Photo: Toyota
The 2024 model year Tacoma is the only application of the TNGA-F to feature a manual transmission, which is a huge deal in and of itself. Under the hood, the N400 further sweetens the deal with a 2.4-liter turbocharged inline-four lump available in four distinct flavors. The most powerful of the lot is the i-FORCE MAX, which brings hybrid assistance to the mix for a grand total of 326 horsepower and 465 pound-feet (630 Nm) of torque.
Lower down the spectrum, the i-FORCE without MAX promises 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet (430 Nm), making it torquier than the old naturally-aspirated V6. The manual transmission in the Blue Beetle SEMA truck comes with small penalties. More to the point, 8 less horsepower and 7 less pound-feet compared to the eight-speed automatic transmission that replaces the old sixer.
At the very bottom of the food chain, the SR Extended Cab is an auto-only affair with 228 horsepower and 243 pound-feet (329 Nm) to its name. Still better than the old 2.7’s output, said powerplant is more than adequate in a work-oriented pickup. Speaking of which, maximum payload capacity and towing capacity are rated at 1,709 pounds (775 kilograms) and 6,500 pounds (2,948 kilograms).
Scheduled to start production in December 2023, the made-in-Mexico 2024 model year Tacoma will arrive in customer hands in January 2024. Come April 2024, the Japanese automaker will start production of the i-FORCE MAX.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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