Rally Cruiser A Land Cruiser built to do a job in the Sahara

SUPPORT ACT

You might well see a modifi ed Toyota Land Cruiser as more of a headliner. But this one was created to support a desert rally team – though now that job is done, it’s about to embark on some long-range action in its own right

Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Richard Hair

The Toyota Land Cruiser: surely one of those 4x4s with a reputation that is so well-earned it becomes a simple truth. Nobody knows that better than Emil and Liliana Schmid, who at the last sighting had been travelling continuously in theirs since 1984. They’ve racked up around 500,000 miles in that time, driving through 186 countries (or so).

I’ve travelled through the Sahara (Morocco, Egypt and Sudan), the Simpson (Australia), the Gobi (Outer Mongolia) and several of the outer areas of the Empty Quarter behind the Emirates, and everywhere apart from the Gobi the most common 4x4 you’d see was a Toyota, usually a Land Cruiser of some sort. At least, they would be the ones moving. The abandoned ones, the broken down ones, usually bore a different badge. I forget which now.

One of the most mesmerising experiences of my life was sitting next to Jackie Ickx, the famous Belgian racing driver, driving us through an ‘impenetrable’ range of big dunes in the southern Sahara. We were in the latest Land Cruiser, air-con on, and he was chatting, driving with just one hand on the wheel as we churned through terrain that would have stopped a tank. His lines through the dunes looked strange but that was because he was at a level normal humans don’t attain, and that Land Cruiser made it through without hesitation. Even he was impressed. I remember being

Underneath the vehicle, everything that can be protected is protected. James Ford, who specced the vehicle as support for his endeavours in the 2019 Morocco Desert Challenge, largely threw the Ironman catalogue at it; in addition to the stuff you can see most of, something you can only see a little of is the Aussie company’s suspension which holds the Land Cruiser that little bit further away from the ground

rendered literally speechless by the performance of man and machine.

So, well, sorry, I like Land Cruisers and have relied on them in some faintly hairy situations. And here’s another one. The real deal. You know how you see 4x4s out and about sometimes, absolutely rammed with all the kit and tech you could possibly imagine, outside, inside and strapped on with expensive straps. Possibly a bit of designer mud. And you just know they’ve never tackled anything more dangerous than a muddy track or a grassy strip at the polo match.

This isn’t one of those.

For a start, it was bought by a proper rally driver. James Ford has had a significant number of rallies given he’s in his 30s, with many victories and placements. His family, in Wales, is clearly invested in the world of rallying. And he went out and bought a 2018 2.8 D-4D model with some nice extras.

Why did he do that, given he normally rallies Escorts, Imprezas and similar? Because he was going to take on a desert rally and he needed a support truck. Support, desert, yes, it has to be a Toyota Land Cruiser.

We only know about this truck because it recently changed hands. It came up at Richard Edmonds Auctions, led in this case by Ross Parker, who is the ‘Post 1960s car consiger’. Who grew up knowing that was a thing?

The vehicle certainly had some money thrown at it, but in a way that really stuck. This wasn’t for show, this was for working hard in a hard environment. People often think of deserts as big expanses of sand, but actually most of most deserts is made up of rocks, of varying sizes, interspersed with sand and bits of vegetation. If you’ve ever been in a rally car then you’ll know that sound, the constant scouring and banging on the underside of the car as rocks and stones hammer into it like a continuous meteor strike. Multiply that by many very long days and you have the effect of driving in the desert.

So there’s Ironman lifted suspension, and a full under-guard kit including protective plates on the axles and diff housings. Braid rally wheels with BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains help keep it moving and, when they all fail, there’s an Ironman front bumper and winch. And in the unlikely event of a river crossing, or the likely to the point of inevitability event of hammering through other people’s flying dust, there’s a substantial snorkel. Twin batteries with split charge, massive roof rack with space for all the essential kit and extra lighting

‘You’ll know that sound, the constant scouring and banging on the underside of the car as rocks and stones hammer into it like a continuous meteor strike’

No-one’s going to object to a nice set of Recaros, but the interior of a Land Cruiser is never a bad place to be. Not even when it’s the back of a vehicle that was built to carry things, keep a rally team supplied and generally get used, which is what happened to it before it came home and was stripped back to the rather sparse looking van compartment you see here. At least, if you see sparseness, you’re looking at the wrong vehicle: if you see a prize-winning expedition fit-out which just happens not to have been installed yet, you’re on the money