We love the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association) trade show in Vegas each year, because it brings out the nuttiest concepts. But those are usually heart-stopping one-offs that are on display by makers of wheels, suspension mods, tires, turbos, etc. What Toyota—and many other carmakers—are bringing this year is pretty intriguing, because so many of these vehicles feel like trial balloons. Like:
“What if we made this other vehicle? Would customers buy it?”
This Turbo Trail Cruiser doesn’t fall into that bucket. Toyota is not going to bring back a 1985 Land Cruiser FJ60 and give it a modern V-6. Sorry. It ain’t happening. But what they have done here does make us think of other possibilities well within Toyota’s capabilities. Here, we’ll detail this specific rig and riff on what it means.
The Turbo Trail Cruiser’s Bona Fides
Toyota said they didn’t want to sully the 40-year-old FJ60’s chassis to wedge in the modern, 3.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 from the 2025 Tundra. What they did want to do was give it significantly more muscle. The i-FORCE V-6’s 389 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque achieves that handily, pretty much doubling the production of that 4×4’s in-line six. Toyota also makes the point that the i-FORCE is quieter, more refined, and cleaner, as well as more fuel efficient.
Impressive Retro-Mod
Here’s what you wouldn’t guess: Toyota’s Motorsports Garage didn’t replace the transmission from the stock FJ60. Instead, they built a custom adapter plate to pair the i-FORCE V-6 to the FJ60’s factory five-speed gearbox. They also re-engineered the Land Cruiser’s oil pan, to fit within the frame of the FJ60, and created a custom exhaust system. They even managed to create a new heat exchanger but attach it to the original mounting points. Unsurprisingly, they had to rig a custom wiring harness for the ECU—since obviously the inline-six didn’t have anything like the modern Tundra’s computational wares.
The FJ was also lifted 1.5-inches and shod with meaty, 35-inch tires.
Authentic Skin
Toyota reskinned this beauty with like-new graphics and decals, and repainted it in 1986 PPG Silver 147 paint—which is period correct. Perhaps in violation of purist instincts, Toyota updated to a modern JBL sound system—and we don’t love the flat-screen display in there.
Still, the interior is definitely awesome, and certainly looks every bit mid-1980s and then some.
TopSpeed’s Take
FJ60 Land Cruisers don’t sell for the extreme money of some other 1980s classics. You can find them on Bring A Trailer for modest, $15,000-$25,000 money. But given that businesses like ICON will charge you $175,000 for an FJ44, we do wonder if Toyota wouldn’t have a decent business model retrofitting their own wares and reselling them with modern Toyota powerplants. Jaguar-Land Rover does this. Porsche does, too, as does Mercedes, and of course all the exotics do as well. Toyota might feel like it’s not worth the bother—they make a very good modern Land Cruiser after all. But this little exercise does make us wonder. The inventory is there, and they wouldn’t (maybe, shouldn’t) go the whole ICON route and plastic-surgery the Land Cruiser so far out of the vehicle’s original, blue-collar bones as to be unrecognizable.
If their peers in luxo-land can do it, why not Toyota? And really, who better to get this recipe right?
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