Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 Is the Off-Roader Your Dad Drove in His Youth, but With a Twist

Petrolheads are rolling their eyes right now, and we completely understand. The FJ40 set wheels in the United States in the 1970s with a 3.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, and later on, it came with rear barn doors. It was reliable, practical, powerful enough not to make a spectacle of itself, and off-road-ready.

Now, it ended up in the hands of the experts from Inverted, a firm that has been rolling out electromodded Ranger Rovers, yet without altering their personality.

This time, the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 drove into their shop with the good old diesel and drove away with an electric motor. The team swapped what they call "the noisy internal combustion engine" for a zero-emission powertrain.

The Land Cruiser FJ40 can be ordered with one of the two powertrains that Inverted offers. It is a motor that delivers 215 horsepower (218 metric horsepower) and 250 pound-feet (339 Newton Meters) of torque when mated to a manual gearbox.

Yes, you read that right, an EV with the original roam-your-own gearbox! The Toyota gear shifter also held its ground, but the firm promises that the FJ40 smoothly starts in any gear, with varying levels of torque.

The driver can go for either the 2WD or the 4WD, depending on the road conditions. An electric locking differential is also on the menu.

The model can also be specced with a Tesla-sourced 320-horsepower (324 metric horsepower) motor with 310 pound-feet (420 Newton meters) of torque and an auto box. This version is not available with the manual transmission and can only be purchased with the 4WD system.

A battery pack with a capacity of 53 kWh stores energy for a drive of up to 150 miles (241 kilometers) before the vehicle needs to be plugged in again. It can recharge from 20 to 80 percent in 25 minutes.

Inverted did not stop at the heart transplant. An upgraded Old Man Emu suspension and large disc brakes from Toyota or Wildwood equip the classic Land Cruiser. They stripped the body down to bare metal and thoroughly restored the over half-a-century-old Toyota to concours condition, adding a generous customization options list, while staying true to the original essence of the Land Cruiser.

Bridge of Weir leather covers the seats and door cards, and a new center console shows up on board. The electric FJ40 receives a touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, a Hi-Fi audio, reversing camera, a new A/C, and LED lights.

Inverted can work on the short-wheelbase FJ40, the middle-wheelbase FJ43, and the long-wheelbase version FJ45. Hardtops, soft tops, station wagons, or pickups, left-hand drive, right-hand drive, you name it, they can do it. Gone are the poor performance, high fuel consumption, emission issues, and all the issues that come with an ICE-powered old car.

Those who want to drive an electric Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 that has aged like fine wine, have to pay north of 195,000 pounds + VAT in the United Kingdom and $244,000 + VAT in the United States.