With 560hp, Joe Rogan’s Land Cruiser is impossibly cool.
We’ve covered builds from Jonathan Ward and ICON on these digital pages before – from over-the-top Broncos to rigs with an awesome patina, his group of companies churn out some of the most desirable off-road rigs in America.
They haven’t taken their proverbial foot off the gas pedal, unsurprisingly, with one of their latest creations. Technically built by Ward’s other company called TLC 4×4, this 1995 Land Cruiser merges one of your author’s favorite bodystyles with a host of finely crafted off-road gear. And, on yeah, a healthy dose of power.
As is typical for a restoration associated with the Ward name, this Toyota went through an exhaustive nut-and-bolt refurbishment, using new OEM parts where appropriate and bespoke or aftermarket pieces in the occasions when factory stuff didn’t measure up to Ward’s exacting standards. In fact, this thing was torn down to the bare ladder frame in what was surely a mahoosive number of labor hours.
Under the hood is a supercharged LS crate motor heaving out a remarkable 560 horsepower and 580lb.-ft of torque. Sure, some of that disappears into the ether thanks to drivetrain loss but it is still a huge amount of grunt for an off-road rig. We love it.
Other trail-ready gear includes plenty of racks for overlanding gear, a new aggro front bumper with a synthetic cable Warn winch, and a huge set of off-road driving lights presumably capable of illuminating the dark side of the moon. Slee Offroad in Colorado gets a shout-out by way of the rear bumper system, rock sliders, and a couple of other items. A set of Fox 2.0 performance series shocks have been hove underneath, along with ARB lockers front and rear with a dedicated air compressor.
Here’s an example of the detail Ward and his team include in their builds. Backing the LS engine in this Land Cruiser is a GM transmission which apparently doesn’t play very well with the Toyota factory PRNDL display. Using a ‘Christmas tree’ of Bosch relays, the crew not only got those indicators to work but also retained the stock shift selector. Check it out at the 14:00 mark in the film shown above.
This isn’t the first machine Joe Rogan has picked up from ICON. Back in 2017 he picked up a restored and modified first-gen ’71 Bronco from the company’s BR line. Powering that rig? A Coyote 5.0L, naturally.
The beauty of every ICON and TLC build is that so many details look stock or factory but are actually the product of a massive amount of customization. The seats in Rogan’s Land Cruiser are a great example of this; taken from a BMW 7er, fitting them necessitated redesigning the door panels due to their size, not to mention the challenges of mounting the things. Yet, it all works together and looks fantastic.
Be sure to bookmark Ward’s YouTube page and check back for more awesome builds.
[Images: YouTube]