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.
Big Oly is possibly the most famous off-road racing truck in American history, it was one of the first designed from the ground up for desert racing – with a tubular steel frame and a fiberglass body bolted to the outside designed to look like a Ford Bronco. Big Oly – The Original King Of…
This week’s find is part of our ongoing “Supercar Engines On eBay” series, it’s a McLaren 540C Twin-Turbo V8 with many of the parts needed to get it fitted into your Miata – with the exception of engine mounts, time, money, and world class fabrication skills. The McLaren 570 series was released in 2015 as…
In 1960 the Americans would arrive at the world’s most famous endurance race with a bang – three specially prepared 1960 Chevrolet Corvettes rolled off the trucks at the Circuit de la Sarthe to challenge for wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time. The truth of the matter is that…
The Austin 7 – An Introduction It was in an Austin 7 that I went on my very first ever road trip. It would have been in about 1961, I was still at primary school, and a member of the school “Scripture Union” club. Our teacher, Mr. Britain, decided to fit three or four of…
Edit: This article has been updated since the new Land Rover Defender was released, to answer the original question, yes this was a leak of the new Defender design. This is the new Lego Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender, it’s a 2,573-piece kit that’s caused quite a stir online as it appears to be a…
This 1968 Ford Bronco is the most successful Pioneer 4×4 class truck in modern NORRA desert racing history, it has competed in the brutal Mexican 1000 since 2010, racking up 7 class wins and 4 Pioneer-era “Steve McQueen” trophies. “The Bronco has always been the benchmark of off-road ability and an icon in the world of desert racing,…
