Speed has always been a notorious metric for car lovers, racers, and engineers alike. Speed has an intoxicating lure, the thought of which activates a certain primitive part of the human brain. Do you know what else speed stands for? That’d be bragging rights.
And as we all know, our brains are wired in such a way that we can’t help but love superlatives. That’s what Toyota has recently pulled off with a heavily modified Land Cruiser. Specifically, the Japanese automaker set the record for world’s fastest SUV with the help of former stock racing driver Carl Edwards.
The previous record was at 211 miles per hour, which works out to 339.5 kilometers per hour in metric jargon. Carl’s attempt, on the other hand, saw his 5.7-liter V8-engined Land Cruiser hit a simply staggering 230 miles per hour (370 kilometers per hour).
“At 225 mph, the thing was wandering a little bit,” Mr. Edwards recounted the experience. “All I could think was that Craig said, ‘No matter what, just keep your foot in it,’ and we got 230 mph. It’s safe to say that this is the fastest SUV on the planet.” It is, but this is in no way a bone stock Land Cruiser.
The headlights are those of the facelifted J200 model, but what hides behind those lamps is a 3UR-FE engine packing a lot of mods. And about 2,000 horsepower. Just to name a few of those mods, these are a pair of volleyball-sized Garrett turbos running up to 55 PSI of boost, much sturdier pistons and rods, and a custom intake manifold.
Even the frame was modified, as was the suspension and the choice of tires. The bottom line is, Toyota's Motorsports Technical Center engineers put a lot of elbow grease into this project. But the real star here is Carl, who kept his foot welded to the floor for as long as the 2.5-mile runway permitted.
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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