Classic Landcruiser You won’t fi nd many prettier 4x4s than this 40-Series

A cruise back in time

The 40-Series Toyota Landcruiser never came to Britain as an offi cial import, but it’s a cult vehicle in the 4x4 world. This one was recently brought here to be restored – and having been given a jaunty new look to make the most of its classic off-road image, it’s ready to become a heirloom vehicle

A cruise back in time

Classic 4x4s have a bad habit of looking beautiful but being so basic they put you right off. The best of them, though, manage to be every bit as elegant to drive as they are to look at.

We’re not talking about the kind of classic that’s been restifi ed beyond all recognition into a latter-day luxury wagon here. Those are lovely in their own way, but this is all about originals – vehicles that put a smile on your face every time you climb aboard simply because of what they are and always have been.

The 40-Series Toyota Landcruiser is a perfect example of this. It’s a huge rarity in Britain, on account of never having been brought here offi cially; people have said in the past that if it had been, there’s a pretty good chance that Land Rover wouldn’t still exist. Perhaps Toyota’s UK importer back then decided that given us Brits’ willingness to favour literally anything with a Union Jack on it over anything from another country, especially if we’ve had a war with that country anytime in the last couple of centuries, the Landcruiser deserved better – either way, they’ve only ever come here as one-off imports.

Not that it would have been plain sailing if the 40-Series had been brought to the UK in big numbers. That happened in the US and they proved capable of rusting even in so-called dry states over there, so our cold, wet environment of mud and road salt hardly sounds like a recipe for a long and happy life.

Maybe that’s one reason why people in Britain tend to be quite starry-eyed about the 40-Series. Even when they wouldn’t touch a Series III Land Rover or CJ Jeep, they’ll still look at an old Landcruiser and make the sort of noises old ladies generate instinctively in the supermarket when they see a young mum with a baby.

Thing is, though, the 40-Series is absolutely beautiful. Possibly, and this is of course, subjective, in a way that the Series III and CJ7 never were. Subjective, but just LOOK at it. What’s not to love?

This particular FJ40 is a late one, having been made in 1983 (production began in 1960 and was wound up in 1984 when the 70-Series came in to replace it). It’s powered by Toyota’s 2F engine, a 4.2-litre straight-six unit developing a quoted 135bhp and 200lbf.ft when new, and had covered about 47,000 miles when it was brought to Britain to be given a new lease of life.

The vehicle, which is currently on the inventory at Winchester Auto Barn, is described as a ‘dry state import’. Its steering wheel is on the right, which is handy, so we suspect that the dry state in question might have been the kind where blokes say ‘strewth’ and ‘cobber’ while dodging kangaroos (and getting hit by crass cliches, evidently…)

Like the truck itself, the 2F engine is a lovely old thing. It started as just the F, a 3.9-litre unit which can trace its history all the way back to 1948; in 1975, just as Queen were busy in the studio recording Bohemian Rhapsody, it was bored from 3.5” to 3.7”, increasing its displacement from

Toyota’s 2F engine was a relative spring chicken, having only been launched in 1975, though the older F unit it’s based on first saw the light of day in 1948. Displacing 4230cc, it produces 135bhp and 200lbf.ft. This example has covered a mere 47,000 miles in the 37 years since it first saw the light of day; the engine is considered to be good for 300,000 miles if it’s looked after properly, so at that rate it should be ready for reconditioning in about 200 years’ time. That’ll be an investment, then…

3878cc to 4230cc. This gave it an extra 10bhp while retaining the wonderfully doughty truck-like nature for which it remains famous today. Six-pot engines are often known for being fragile in the head gasket department, but a well maintained 2F will go on forever – quarter of a million miles is no problem at all and, as is common for Landcruisers of all ages, they frequently go on a lot further than that without needing any major work.

Sure enough, the engine in this one was as it should be after so few miles with nothing in the way of smoke or oil leaks. It got a new set of spark plugs and now it runs like the well oiled machine it is. It had been sitting for a while when we drove it and the clutch wanted bleeding, so getting it into gear was a bid of a trial, however there was nothing sinister in this and once up and running from a very cold start, the big six-pot settled down to a beautifully smooth idle. It’s got some real get-up-and-go to it, too – top speed is predictably low (the speedo goes up to 160km/h, but good luck with that), however it picks up with real alacrity and feels as if it would hardly notice if you asked it to do the same with a heavy trailer on the back.

Not that you’d ask an old classic like this to do anything so demeaning, of course. But she’s definitely got it in her.

We mentioned earlier in the story that these old Landcruisers knew how to rust, but they also knew how not to when treated they way they ought to be. Which is what seems to have happened here, because when it was pulled apart it turned out to be completely sound with no welding necessary to the chassis or body. A solid base for a refurb, then.

Obviously, the truck looks sensational in its new coat of bright red paint and fawn canvas hood. It’s got summertime fun written all over it. And it’s even better inside, with all the right dash furniture maintaining a perfect period feel and steering wheel with the same diameter as the planet. This turns an uprated PAS system, further adding to the sheer joyous ease with which the vehicle can be driven.

The Landcruiser’s cabin is elegantly simple but not sparse and certainly not uncivilised. The dash has all the correct period furniture and the steering wheel is immense – with the PAS having been upgraded, it’s easy to turn even at very low speeds, but while you could get away with a smaller wheel it just wouldn’t look right. The same could be said of the inward-facing rear seats, which are not where you’d want to be in a stack, but they’re accessed by a wonderfully quirky pair of half-canvas rear doors

There are seven seats in the cabin, if you don’t mind putting people in the side-facers at the back. These are accessed though twin opening half-canvas rear doors, which is a delightful quirk that adds yet more character to a vehicle which already has lots.

There’s a swing-away spare wheel and jerry can carrier behind these, which we think has the look of a more recent accessory. Someone has done a bit of modernising during the vehicle’s life, evidently – there’s also an interior strip light mounted on one of the hood sticks, and a set of 265/70R16 General Grabber AT3 is mounted on some distinctly aftermarket beadlock effect rims. These are great tyres though in this size they’re a bit wider than they are tall, and they float out past the rear arches by about an inch; the combination may or may not suit your own personal taste in off-road rubberware, but they certainly fit in with the overall style of what is a spectacularly nice 40-Series.

With a price tag of £37,950 on its screen, the Landcruiser is definitely not a cheap old truck. When you look at the sort of money even the roughest examples of the same model are capable of fetching, however, it’s an appealing way of spending the sort of money you could otherwise spend on the sort of modern SUV that will have lost half its value by the time its first big service is due.

This, on the other hand, is going to become a heirloom motor for somebody. You might see it as a toy, or maybe an investment – either way, it’s ready to last forever. The Landcruiser is currently for sale at Winchester Auto Barn, a company that’s halfway between a classic car dealership and a drop-in club for people with interesting motors. You’ll find them at www. winchesterautobarn.com