Photo: Instagram/Camplife Customs & Kanye West (Composite)
If love is quantifiable by the number or the price tag of automotive gifts you shower your significant other with, then it's everlasting love between Kanye West and his wife, Bianca Censori.
Say what you will about Kanye West's latest antics, which range from making derogatory, hateful comments on social media to showcasing the most confusing and impractical aesthetic, and apparently turning his current wife, Bianca, into a clone of his ex, Kim Kardashian, but the man has a very peculiar – and quite awesome – taste in cars.
Back when he was still living at his ranch in Wyoming a few years ago, Kanye amassed the most impressive fleet of vehicles, which included anything from a handful of Ford F-150 Raptors to Sherp ATVs and a Ripsaw tank. In LA with his then-wife Kim, he would always make a showing of their latest acquisition, whether that was a car for himself or, most frequently, a gift for her.
If Kanye's desire to show off has declined, his love of automotive gifts hasn't. This past weekend, he and his wife Bianca were spotted out and about in Los Angeles, with her getting behind the wheel of a white Toyota Mega Cruiser, the largest vehicle ever to wear the Toyota branding and a legit military beast.
Photo: Instagram/Camplife Customs
As it turns out, even if you might not have seen the car before, it's not a new purchase. Kanye actually bought it in the summer of 2023, specifically as a present for Bianca, becoming, in the process, the second person to own a Mega Cruiser in the United States. The other person is whoever bought the unit that popped up for auction earlier that year for $310,000.
Kanye's unit is customized, because Kanye likes all his cars like that. Camplife Customs handled the work, which included an all-white paintjob and a matching white canvas cover for the exposed rear. Apparently, the whole job had to be completed in just three days before Kanye presented Bianca with her new ride.
Only 3,000 units of the Mega Cruiser were produced between 1995 and 2001, and of them, less than 135 ended up in civilian hands. Toyota designed this beast for the Japanese Self Defense Forces, but some units also went to firefighters and emergency response personnel.
Photo: Instagram/Camplife Customs
Kanye and Bianca's Mega Cruiser seems to be the HMV (high mobility vehicle) version of the Mega Cruiser, based on the round lights and the stamped effect on the metal doors. The original military version came with a wheelbase of 133.7 inches and is 85.4 inches wide, tipping the scales at 3 tons.
Power came from a 4.1-liter turbodiesel engine rated at 153 hp and mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. It was notably slow but, as you'd imagine, could go virtually anywhere thanks to front, center and rear locking differentials, centralized tire inflation system, two-speed transfer case, and four-wheel steering.
None of that matters anymore under the current ownership, but we reckon that its slowness helps with getting even more attention in traffic.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News