Photo: Toyota USA
Many huzzahs! The Toyota Land Cruiser is coming back to the US domestic market. That's right. All that classic Japanese dependability and off-road capability is making its way back to North America, seemingly to prove it can still make mince meat of Jeeps and Land Rovers in the reliability department all over again. But before the new Land Cruiser hits our shores, Toyota took the opportunity at the 2023 SEMA show to remind us Yanks about its roots. The results of what they came up with are nothing short of Profound.
Say hello to the FJ Bruiser, a very typical 1966 Toyota FJ45 we all know and love, modified to be anything but ordinary. Because the SEMA Show is where custom cars come to flex on each other, the mods and accessories applied to the FJ Bruiser are outrageous and exaggerated to the point of perfection. Where there once would have been a plethora of four and six-cylinder gas or diesel engines now sits a 358-cubic inch (5.8-liter) found in the latest breed of Toyota's NASCAR Cup race cars and jetting 725 horsepower to the tires.
All this power feeds to a Rancho Drivetrain Engineering three-speed automatic gearbox and is distributed to either the rear wheels or all four through an Advanced Adapter Atlas transfer case. Both axles are solid front and rear because who'd be caught dead rocking some sci-fi independent suspension in a classic off-roader? What this means is that the FJ Bruiser is just as adept at crawling up sandy hills at 12 mph as it is at a half-mile sprint at 165 mph. It's all to the sound of a thumping great V8 singing to its heart's content, thanks to a MagnaFlow performance exhaust.
Add on a set of 42-inch BF Goodrich Krawler T/A KX Tires on 20-inch Beadlock wheels from Method riding on Fox shocks and Eibach springs, and the FJ Bruiser is one of the most intimidating OEM custom restomods we've seen since a GM put an Ultium EV drivetrain under the hood of an old K5 Blazer a few years ago. Inside, the story is much the same as the exterior. Beefy momo racing bucket seats with full six-point harnesses trimmed in tasteful plaid cloth stitching make for an interior you wouldn't mind sitting in.
"Every year, we are fortunate enough to get to build a SEMA special project vehicle. With the return of the Land Cruiser to the U.S. Market, it only made sense to build a rock crawler, so this is our take on a 1966 Toyota FJ45 Pickup Truck,” explained Marty Schwerter, garage team manager at Toyota Motorsports. "At first, it was referred to loosely as ‘The Unstoppable FJ,’ but by the time it was done, it was a beastly vehicle, and so the team started referring to it as the 'FJ Bruiser.' Schwerter and his team crushed the build, creating a King of The Hammers-style classic FJ that checks all the extreme performance boxes."
Sad to say, but the FJ Bruiser won't make it to production. Still, Toyota's goal of promoting the next generation of North American Land Cruisers was well catered through this outrageous homage to its considerable heritage. Though it won't hit showroom floors until 2025 at the earliest, we bet quite a few people at SEMA marked up their calendars for that day to arrive.
All this power feeds to a Rancho Drivetrain Engineering three-speed automatic gearbox and is distributed to either the rear wheels or all four through an Advanced Adapter Atlas transfer case. Both axles are solid front and rear because who'd be caught dead rocking some sci-fi independent suspension in a classic off-roader? What this means is that the FJ Bruiser is just as adept at crawling up sandy hills at 12 mph as it is at a half-mile sprint at 165 mph. It's all to the sound of a thumping great V8 singing to its heart's content, thanks to a MagnaFlow performance exhaust.
Add on a set of 42-inch BF Goodrich Krawler T/A KX Tires on 20-inch Beadlock wheels from Method riding on Fox shocks and Eibach springs, and the FJ Bruiser is one of the most intimidating OEM custom restomods we've seen since a GM put an Ultium EV drivetrain under the hood of an old K5 Blazer a few years ago. Inside, the story is much the same as the exterior. Beefy momo racing bucket seats with full six-point harnesses trimmed in tasteful plaid cloth stitching make for an interior you wouldn't mind sitting in.
"Every year, we are fortunate enough to get to build a SEMA special project vehicle. With the return of the Land Cruiser to the U.S. Market, it only made sense to build a rock crawler, so this is our take on a 1966 Toyota FJ45 Pickup Truck,” explained Marty Schwerter, garage team manager at Toyota Motorsports. "At first, it was referred to loosely as ‘The Unstoppable FJ,’ but by the time it was done, it was a beastly vehicle, and so the team started referring to it as the 'FJ Bruiser.' Schwerter and his team crushed the build, creating a King of The Hammers-style classic FJ that checks all the extreme performance boxes."
Sad to say, but the FJ Bruiser won't make it to production. Still, Toyota's goal of promoting the next generation of North American Land Cruisers was well catered through this outrageous homage to its considerable heritage. Though it won't hit showroom floors until 2025 at the earliest, we bet quite a few people at SEMA marked up their calendars for that day to arrive.
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