t s e b e h t f o 4 x 4 el from the 4x4 world. representing a particular make and mod A quartet of great modified off-roaders the world of leaf-sprung Land Rovers This month: classic meets modified in
watch and learn
Y
ou have to wonder why there aren’t more Toyota Land Cruisers being used in extreme off-road circles. When your choices include perhaps the most capable and reliable line of vehicles ever created, why would you go with anything else? But brand loyalty is a funny thing. So too, in this sceptred isle of ours, is the effect of wrapping something in a Union Jack. And so for decade upon decade, Britain’s 4x4 enthusiasts have been so obsessed with one single manufacturer (see if you can guess which one we’re talking about) that for a long time, while Toyota was steadily taking over the rest of the world it didn’t even bother trying to sell the Land Cruiser here.
58 | MAY 2023
10pp 4x4 of the Best May 23.indd 58
Words: Gary Noskill Pics: Steve Taylor
Go to Africa or Asia, travel the Outback in Australia, watch the Rainforest Challenge in Malaysia, spend any length of time in the wild parts of South America, and before long you’ll have seen more Land Cruisers than you thought existed in the world. In fact, it seems like the only two places where Toyota’s 4x4 hero isn’t totally dominant are here in Britain and over in America. I wonder why… Yet over on the far side of the Atlantic, there’s a hardcore group of Cruiser fans who’d never touch a Jeep. And it’s the same over here; Britain’s Land Cruiser devotees laugh at the notion of owning a Land Rover. Once you’ve got a truck that’s known for not breaking, they argue, why on earth would you trade down to one that’s known for exactly the opposite?
At this point, let’s introduce Andy Laban. He’s a professional mechanic and a qualified offroad instructor, so he ought to know about this stuff. And he does. And he drives a modified 70-Series Land Cruiser. And he takes it offroading at least twice a month. ‘I can’t get enough of driving the car,’ he remarked to us. ‘It’s like a drug!’ Being a spanner man, he’s able to do most of the work himself. This of course makes a huge difference to the cost of a project – as in, unless you’re seriously well off it means you can actually afford to go off-roading at all. The result is that Andy’s truck has more mods on it than he’d have been able to make if he’d been paying someone else to do the work for him. And there’s another side to this,
4x4 11/04/2023 00:57
