Toyota Land Cruiser with Diesel Power Goes Retro for 70th Birthday

“No worries, mate. It’s a diesel”

Need an excuse for a party? Toyota fans in Australia are celebrating the 70th birthday of the Land Cruiser. To mark the occasion, Toyota has released a limited-edition version of its 70-Series model. The interior has embellishments, but the style is definitely retro. It's being called the 70th Anniversary truck.

The story by Ronan Glon appeared early this month on the Autoblog.

Toyota is making only 600 units for this occasion with three options for its basic foundation: single cab, double cab or wagon. The color options are fun: French Vanilla, Merlot Red, or Sandy Taupe. The article runs through the various talking points regarding exterior styling before opening the door for a look inside the cabin. 

The 70-Series incorporates a number of first time embellishments, which you can also read about in the article. What interested us most was what's under the hood. As it turns out, the power plant is a 4.5-liter turbodiesel V8 with a 202 horsepower rating and 317 pound-feet of torque. There's no automatic on this truck, only a five-speed manual transmission. "Every commemorative Land Cruiser will offer users a snorkel, low-range gearing, locking front and rear differentials, plus a 7,700-pound towing capacity," Glon writes. 

For those unfamiliar, the snorkel enables an engine to breathe while underwater. During World War Two, jeeps were equipped with ten or fifteen foot breather extensions that enabled them to drive underwater while making a beachhead. (Here are some tips for installing a snorkel on your off-roading machine.)

Toyota has decided to make 320 double-cabs, 200 single-cabs and 80 wagons, only for Australia. We've heard no rumors about anything similar for the U.S. market. In fact, according to the Autoblog story, the next-gen 300-Series will not be sold in the U.S. either. On a positive note, Toyota did announce that it plans to re-release a selection of hard-to-find parts for the 40-Series Land Cruiser (FJ40) which was built from 1960 to 1984.

The last part of the article contained a lot of trivia that you may not have been aware of. Did you know....

--The Land Cruiser name plate appeared on a Studebaker decades before Toyota used it.

--The Toyota Land Cruiser is not actually turning 70 this year. Rather, this is the 70th anniversary of the BJ, a Jeep-like 4x4 used by the Japanese armed forces.

--The BJ became the BJT, a touring car sold in select markets. No more than 300 were built.

--The name Land Cruiser was first used by Toyota is 1954.

--Land Cruiser sales began in 1958, the year after Toyota opened an American division.

--Only one Land Cruiser was sold that year. It is now in a museum in Salt Lake City. 

There are lots of photos and a video at the Autoblog site. Find the full story here:
https://www.autoblog.com/2021/08/03/toyota-land-cruiser-70th-anniversary-australia/

Is Toyota Preparing to Bring a Hybrid Diesel to America?

Yesterday we wrote about some of the new technology created to reduce or eliminate emissions on diesel trucks. In today's story we'll discuss another innovation that 50 years ago would probably never been imagined--a hybrid diesel truck.

The first story that caught my eye was this one at Gear Junkie titled, US Hilux? Toyota Poised to Launch Diesel Trucks in America. It's actually two stories rolled into one. The first story has to do with buzz generated by a new patent application that had been filed by the Japanese manufacturer, Patent No. US2020020860 for a new kind of internal combustion engine. (Did you know that the U.S. Patent Office considered closing at the turn of the last century? They believed so many inventions had been patented there couldn't possibly be anything new.)

The story doesn't end there. Rumor has it, according to Gear Junkie, that Toyota may be eliminating the Diesel Particulate Filter and Diesel Exhaust Fluid with an alternate to glow plugs and a re-designed injection nozzle.  

That's not all. The Toyota Tacoma has a cousin called the Hilux. Of the Hilux author Sam Anderson writes: "The 2022 Toyota Hilux has a 2.8L 1GD-FTV I-4 turbodiesel with 174 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. The turbodiesel impresses in the crawl: Full torque is available as low as 1,200 RPM. Alternatively, a small-displacement 2.4L engine provides 148 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque."

In short, Toyota engineers have talent. But their marketers are equally sharp. Their response to the increasingly stringent environmental demands on cars and trucks is to deliver a hybrid truck. That's right. The hybrid Hilux will purportedly produce 200 hp and 350 pound-feet of torque.

Anderson admits some of this is rumor, but Toyota has been shifting gears for a while and it's not impossible to connect dots on where they are going. The company announced last year that they were phasing our their V8 engines.

Anderson examines various scenarios that might play out with regard to Toyota's various truck brands, the Tacoma, Tundra and Land Cruiser, though in the end he states that it is impossible from this vantage point to know what Toyota's coming truck lineup will look like.

More About Hybrids
Interestingly enough, two additional stories about hybrid diesels crossed the wire today. One has to do with the development of a hybrid tractor trailer in Canada. The other was published in at a popular investment site, The Motley Fool

Chelsey St.Pierre's article in The Suburban is titled "Scarpallegia announces investment in Pointe-Claire hybrid tractor-trailer project." Francis Scarpallegia is a member of Canada's Parliament who spoke on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources announcing a $1.7 million investment in FPInnovations to develop and demonstrate a hybrid diesel-electric forestry truck.

There's a certain logic to all this. If you are entirely EV and get stuck in the North Woods with your power drained, what are your options? But if you have a hybrid, you will be far more self-sufficient and less worried about the low juice reading on your battery. 

The real driver, of course, is reduced emissions. Fuel savings are also significant if this project comes to fruition. You can read more about what FPInnovations is doing here.

The last story is titled, "Hyliion: We're On Track to Launch Next Year, No Additional Cash Needed." Hyliion is a truck drivetrain company that is preparing to ship a hybrid-semi system later this year. The Texas-based publicly traded company is getting ready to supply lower-emissions drivetrains that can be fitted onto heavy duty trucks by the six leading global truck manufacturers, familiar names to Blue Flame blog readers.

The MF article focuses on the company as an investment, but provides some keen insights as regards the EV revolution. This intermediary period of hybrid diesel-EV trucks is happening in nearly every truck category, from personal rides to heavy duty workhorses. Here's where you can find the rest of this story from the Motley Fool.

These are certainly interesting times. Stay current with diesel developments, by subscribing to our email feed. We'll do our best to keep you up-to-date on all things diesel as they happen.

Read the full Gear Junkie Toyota Story here.
https://gearjunkie.com/news/toyota-hilux-tacoma-diesel-hybrid-trucks-usa

New Twin-Turbo Diesel Toyota Land Cruiser Unveiled... The Good and the Bad, Nothing Ugly

Let's lead with the bad news. It's not available in the U.S.

Now that that's out of the way... On Wednesday this week Autoblog.com published a story about the new LC300 Toyota Land Cruiser that has been unveiled. The LC200-series Land Cruiser has just completed a successful 14 year run, but now Toyota is turning the page.

The new LC300 Land Cruiser features a twin-turbo diesel engine, inserted into a new platform that the article describes as "a clear evolution of past models, with blocky styling and off-road specifications designed to reliably cope with the harshest conditions and climates the world has to offer." 

Some of those climates include Australia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. What you need in the Outback and other remote terrains is reliability and durability, and that is what has made the Land Rover so successful. This latest version comes with two engine options, both V6. The 3.5-liter gas-powered V6 delivers 415 hp and 480 pound-feet of torque. The 3.3-liter diesel delivers 309  hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. With either selection you have a 10-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive.

Both Toyota and the article tout the chassis and suspension setup. The article include dramatic illustrations of these features. In addition this SUV is 440 pounds lighter than its previous iteration. The vehicle has a Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System that purportedly improves road handling performance as well.

When the article describes monitors that provide views of obstacles ahead and behind, it brings to mind my last visit to SEMA and the futuristic displays there in the Toyota booth. It was as if we were experiencing the year 2045 as envisioned by Spielberg in the Tom Cruise cyberclassic Minority Report. It does seem like when we experience some of the new tech being incorporated into todays cars and trucks, it feels like we are living in the future.

You can find more details on this breaking story here.