THE SEMA or the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas isn’t just for exhaust manufacturers and body kit makers to plug their products. It also gives the big manufacturers an opportunity to really let loose, creating things like this FJ Bruiser.
Yes, it is an official project of Toyota itself, based on an FJ40 Land cruiser. Well, basically, it doesn’t look like there’s much left of the original, “well-worn” donor car. The creation features new bodywork designed to follow “classic FJ lines” mounted on a custom frame.
There is also a new swingarm suspension with Fox shocks and Eibach springs to suit the new shoes, including 20-inch beadlock wheels shod with monstrous 42-inch BF Goodrich tires. At full compression, the new chassis configuration will place the tires “about halfway up the windshield line,” Toyota says. Crikey.
Toyota also notes that the FJ Bruiser was built to be “unstoppable,” which is why there are heavy-duty Currie differentials at each end of the vehicle and an Advanced Adapter Atlas transfer case with four gears each for two and four wheels. player settings. In the lowest gear, you can make the engine roar to 7,000 rpm while the FJ Bruiser cruises at just 12 mph.
As far as the powertrain goes, it’s something pretty special. It’s a 358 cubic inch V8 (that’s 5.86 liters, for those of us using the metric system) borrowed from Toyota Racing Development in California. Normally it powers the TRD NASCAR Cup Car, and here it delivers 715 hp to the wheels through a three-speed racing automatic transmission. A MagnaFlow exhaust system delivers an “intimidating exhaust note,” which we can believe.
The cabin has been revised with checkered trim, Momo seats and – believe it or not – a steering wheel taken from Jackie Stewart’s 1968 F1 championship-winning Matra MS10.
The FJ Bruiser is now on display at the SEMA show, alongside various other Toyota exhibits.
