Toyota released its first 4×4 for public sale in 1951, it was essentially a clone of the American Jeep but over the decades that followed the Japanese honed the design into something unique – and much loved around the world.
Today the FJ40 stands as probably the most famous of the early Japanese 4x4s, and there are companies like ICON 4X4 have been established that specialise in rebuilding them into V8-powered fire-breathing beasts with much more modern suspension and drivetrains – and performance figures that would have made the original engineers’ eyes water.
If you’d like to download the wallpaper you can click the image below to load it in a new window, or click here to read a history of the Toyota J series.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
This film was originally an episode of a popular British TV show called “Millionaire”. Each episode followed a millionaire of the time offering a window into their life, and perhaps a glimpse into what made them a millionaire in the first place. For anyone interested in cars, Formula 1, or motorsport in general the 35…
The So-Cal Speed Shop Special Belly Tank Racer, also known as a “Lakester”, was developed in the late 1940s using relatively primitive hot rod techniques to create a car that would break five records using three different engines on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The So-Cal Speed Shop Alex Xydias famously founded the So-Cal Speed Shop…
This highly unusual 1933 Chevrolet custom car is thought to be the first complete car built to a design by Alex Tremulis, the legendary American car designer who would go on to design vehicles as varied as the Tucker 48, the Ford X-2000, the Subaru Brat, and even the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar – a reusable…
Supercar Showdown is a straight-to-VHS film from 1986 comparing the Lamborghini Countach, the Ferrari Testarossa, and the Porsche 911 Turbo (930). The film is peak ’80s, with synth backing tracks, classic period video effects, and some great on-road footage showing all three cars driving together as well as all the other ‘70s and ‘80s…
This is the 1:10th scale Porsche 911 Carrera RSR R/C (remote control) car from Tamiya, it was carefully developed to closely match the now legendary styling of what is doubtless one of the most famous Porsches in history. 1973 was the year the 911 RSR was introduced as a homologation special to permit the car…
This article was written by the remarkable Daniel Burton, an inspiring young man living with Asperger’s who has spent years carefully designing his own road-legal race car. The design is now ready for testing and final tweaks before being built. If you would like to contact Daniel regarding the Burton Trackster and you think you…
