Toyota
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Seventies Revival
When this Toyota Landcruiser was first modified, around a decade ago, it was perhaps the best of its kind in Britain. It has spent much of the intervening period laid up and forgotten – but now, in the hands of a new owner, it’s once again ready to demonstrate the...
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Double or Quits
Once you’ve had a Toyota Land Cruiser in your life, you tend not to want ever to be without one. But what if your Land Cruiser doesn’t quite suit the work you use it for? Do you do the unthinkable and replace it with something else...
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Hardcore Hilux
Double-cabs currently account for the vast majority of big-budget off-road builds in the UK. It’s not long ago, however, that new trucks were rarely used as the basis for a project – and that when you did see a pick-up being modified, it tended to be a project involving less...
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Hit for Six
Some would say the 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser is the best car ever made. And with a DIY pick-up conversion, not to mention an extra back axle, you can turn one into a pretty great truck, too.
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Super Troopy
Toyota’s HZJ78 Land Cruiser Troop Carrier is a massively popular vehicle with long-distance off-road travellers in Australia. It’s a rarity in the UK, however – so when Bob Seaborn came across one he knew and loved of old, what happened next was a foregone conclusion.
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Life Begins At 80
The 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser is renowned for being one of the best off-road vehicles of all time. Which means that if you convert one into a pick-up, it’s going to be one of the best pick-ups of all time…
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Dare To Be Different
As the number of credible off-road machines on the market gets smaller, more and more vehicle builders are turning to pick-up trucks. Will Rhodes’ Hi-Lux is a fine example of what you can do with a late-letter truck, a decent budget – and as much imagination as you can muster
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Ready For Anything
The 80-Series Land Cruiser is famous for many things, among them its bomb-proof diesel engine. Kev Martin’s doesn’t have one of those, but it’s still bomb-proof – in fact, with the mods he’s made to it this petrol-powered leviathan is about as everything-proof as they come.
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Nicely Run In
When Frank Cook decided to build a 4x4 and ship it to Australia for the expedition of a lifetime, the vehicle he found was a rare gem. How many 80-Series Land Cruisers can there be these days with a five-figure mileage on their clock, after all? With a major mechanical...
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Small But Mighty
Vehicles come in all different shapes and sizes – this has and hopefully always will be the case. You could even start to stereotype certain styles of vehicle based on their country of origin: in the West, for example, there are many big, loud and brash vehicles, like the Hummer,...
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Grip Without a Trip
Project Land Cruiser What is it? 2001 Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado 3.0 TD Why are we running it? To see if an old-tech wagon can be modded for weekend laning and still be an economical tow truck and daily driver Mods so far: Vortex exhaust, Pedders suspension, Safari Snorkel, Superwinch Talon, Spanner Monkeys fabricated bumpers...
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All Creatures Great And Small
South Africa is home to many exotic species, most of which seem capable of doing you harm. Not a bad place to be behind the wheel of something Invincible, then… I’ve always had a healthy disregard for camping.
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Welcome to the Jungle
This hasn't been a good year for Englishmen who go to the Amazon. Unless they're Gary Ramsay. While the rest of the country was getting ready to support Our Boys in their ultimately disastrous assault on the World Cup in Brazil, Gary was prepping a Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon for...
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Cruiser Control
Julian Voelcker owns a company that specialises in modifying Toyota Land Cruisers. But instead of just trying to sell his customers as many bolt-on bits as possible, he preaches the value of self-control. Land Cruisers go everywhere the world over in standard form, you see.
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Bashing on regardless
When you do your off-roading in Britain, no amount of it will ever teach you how to drive on sand. So when the opportunity to go dune bashing on the edge of the Sahara comes along, it’s time to forget everything you’ve ever learned about mud – and start paying...
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Less Is More
Three words you’re unlikely to think of, when considering a Hi-Lux on 35s with 3” of lift and an exo cage made from steam pipe, are ‘light’, ‘low’ and ‘fast.’ But when Ashley Stimpson compares his Mk3 to the giant Patrol he used to run, he’s entitled to think that...
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Grey Matter
Prepped-up Land Cruisers have a reputation for being all about expensive bolt-on goodies. Shaun Dickinson’s grey-import Prado is anything but, however – in fact the amount of ingenious mods on it proves that the less choice you’ve got of off-the-shelf accessories, the more you can achieve by using your head.
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Toyota Hi-Lux ♦ Vehicle Test ♦
Gently revised engines and subtle styling updates don’t add up to a radically new version of Toyota’s pick-up legend. But they didn’t exactly need to…
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Toyota Land Cruiser ♦ Vehicle Test ♦
Big Land Cruisers have always been at the exclusive end of the 4x4 market. In the days before soft-roaders, the old 80-Series and early Amazon were about as luxurious as it got; today, there’s a lot more around in the way of premium alternatives, but if you want a proper...
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Radio Daze
When Mitch Lewis realised his ambition of buying a brand new Toyota Hi-Lux, it brought to an end almost a quarter of a century of waiting. But the story didn’t end there. In fact, with the average radio-controlled monster truck as his muse, a whole new chapter was about to...
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Master Of All Trades
Not many cars are as versatile as Mark Aughton’s Land Cruiser. It’s a comfortable daily driver, a smile-raising muddy hero, a doughty workmate and a Sahara-bashing overland adventurer all rolled into one.
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Hull On Earth
There’s not a lot of mud in Hull, but Martin Hoey’s Hi-Lux is well used to digging deep into the top bit of Planet Earth. And talking of deep stuff, the truck you’re looking at here is something of a local hero…
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West Coast Cruiser
Paul Lundstrom likes 4x4s so much, he’s got three of them. One’s for work, one’s for play and one’s his family car. And each of them is a Toyota Land Cruiser.
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I Shall Overcome
However old Toyota Land Cruisers get, they just keep on going; round the world, round the clock several times. But Matty Slinger’s 80-Series had already been around, so he figured there was only one way to go – up.
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Porsche Off
Andy Garside liked his Cayenne S, but he felt it was lacking in character. No such worries about the truck he bought to replace it, though – because this one’s a proper off-roader…
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Surfing Against The Tide
Toyota’s Hi-Lux Surf isn’t the most obvious basis for an off-road project. If Wayne Larsen had realised that, his wife might not be driving around in a Volvo. Still, at least he takes her laning at the weekend – and the vehicle he’s created is a perfect example of grass-roots...
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May The 4x4s Be With You
There are many reasons to go overlanding in Tunisia. Not that you needed one, of course – but when you get the chance to pilot your vehicle across the desert sands to a perfectly preserved intergalactic village inhabited by Ewan McGregor in Star Wars, it’s time to engage four-wheel drive...
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The Best of Everything
Take one Land Cruiser, a customer with a desire to equip it with a comprehensive range of expedition mods, and a couple of months in the Frogs Island Workshop. Mix them all together & the result is an overland truck to die for…
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Double Or Quits
Des Hitchens’ Hi-Lux was one of the first double-cabs to come into the UK. Now he’s about to start building a second as well – though that doesn’t mean this one has reached the end of the road…
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Bolts From The Blue
What do you get if you cross a 70-series Land Cruiser with an angle grinder and a pot of ‘ASBO-orange’ paint? The man from Total Off Road went to Devon to find the answer and came away mightily impressed by what he saw.
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Life Begins At 40
Not many 40-Series Toyota Land Cruisers ever came to Britain – which was possibly just as well for every other 4x4 manufacturer at the time. Those that remain are now well into the realms of being classic cars – though that doesn’t stop them from having the potential to be...
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Welcome to the Dark
One overland trip to North Africa in a Discovery was enough to convince Geoff Daulman that he wanted a Land Cruiser instead. And he knew exactly where to get just the Land Cruiser he wanted…
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The Wheel Deal
People told Adam Johnson he was mad when he decided to fit a third axle to his Toyota Land Cruiser. Thanks to a combination of his exceptional handiwork and a clever suspension set-up, however, no-one’s laughing now.
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Mr Reliable
The rational off-road enthusiast may be expected to want a vehicle that is reliable, highly capable and easy to modify. Makes you wonder why more people don’t own Toyota Land Cruisers, really…
