The Toyota FJ Bruiser concept made its public debut at SEMA 2023 this week, paying tribute to the Land Cruiser’s roots. It might look like a typical rock crawler, but under the hood, you’ll find a TRD, 5.9L V8 NASCAR Cup Car engine making 725 horsepower, mated to a 3-speed automatic race-built Rancho Drivetrain Engineering transmission.
FJ Bruiser had to remain solid axle vehicle to be “unstoppable”. Featuring front / rear Currie differentials and an Advanced Adapter Atlas transfer case that provides four 2WD speeds / four 4WD speeds, allowing the vehicle to crawl at 12 mph revving to 7,000 rpm in the lowest gear and then hit speeds of up to 165 mph in its highest gear. Step inside, and you’re greeted by MOMO Daytona EVO seats reskinned in paint scheme-colored plaid as a homage to the FJ’s original plaid bench seat as well as a vintage 1968 Jackie Stewart championship steering wheel. If you’re at SEMA now, make sure to stop by the Toyota booth (Central Hall, Booth 22200) before the show ends Friday.
Every year we are fortunate enough to get to build a SEMA special project vehicle. With the return of the Land Cruiser to the U.S. Market, it only made sense to build a rock crawler, so this is our take on a 1966 Toyota FJ45 Pickup Truck. At first it was referred to loosely as ‘The Unstoppable FJ,’ but by the time it was done, it was a beastly vehicle, and so the team started referring to it as the ‘FJ Bruiser.’”, said Marty Schwerter, Toyota Motorsports garage team manager.
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