This Could Be The Greatest Land Cruiser We've Ever Seen

Retro is big business these days, and we’re not even going to pretend that we aren’t totally in love with this incredible Land Cruiser FJ restoration. And if you want one too, you can buy one.

The FJ Company in Japan has developed this reborn FJ43L-KC Land Cruiser as its new flagship model. The firm is already a global Land Cruiser specialist, but the FJ series has become the most collectable of all and values are rising at silly speeds.

Starting with a tired old 1981 FJ43 in Freeborn Red that the company’s scouts found in a small town in Central Colombia, South America, the designer renovation has the added kudos of being based on what is a rare two-door medium-wheelbase version with a canvas roof and off-white original factory hard top.

Amazingly, the same owner had owned it from new but had reached his 90s and couldn’t drive it any more. It was in great condition, all things considered, but FJ Company always starts with a back-to-metal restoration anyway. Every element was then rebuilt and repainted to showroom-fresh condition. We wonder what sort of new car smell it has.

The hard top was taken away and a new, bespoke canvas roof commissioned to match the original. Upgrades were made in the shape of removable side and rear windows. Good for ventilation, but there’s also a Vintage Air air conditioning system on board.

Although the original red was pretty cool, FJ Company chose another original Toyota colour; Dune Beige. It was applied as a matt finish for a rougher, older look. Then LED fog lights and a winch were added to the chassis’ girder front bumper.

Of course, a legend needs an engine. The low-power 4.2-litre 2F straight-six has been binned in favour of the 4.0-litre 1GR-FE V6 you’ll find in modern Land Cruisers. It brings a 236bhp slice of refinement to the party, and almost double the output of the original motor. The new six-speed manual gearbox has longer gears for better on-road usability.

New bouncy bits come from Old Man Emu and Fox, with disc brakes lifted from the current Toyota 4Runner. Inside, luxurious leather sports seats are a curious but lovely anachronism – although that’s nothing compared to the Focal sound system you can control from the iPad mounted in the console between the front seats.

The price for this Signature spec car is starts at $200,000, but lower-grade restorations begin at $85,000. Just 24 Signature builds will happen during 2018, unless FJ Company changes its plans to meet demand. We want one. Hard.