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LOADED4X4.COM.AU
LOADED 007: FJ CRUISER
a story that starts, and for the
moment at least, ends with a
blue Tonka truck, and it’s got the
Tonka badges to prove it.
Toyota no longer makes the
FJ Cruiser, and it never sold in
great numbers in Australia. For
those that don’t know, the FJ is
pretty much all Prado under the
skin, and that means straight
off the showroom floor, it’s got
game out on the tracks. Under
the bonnet is Toyota’s 4.0-litre V6
VVT petrol engine – it was the
only engine available in the FJ –
and this fact alone would have
kept a lid on interest in Australia.
It shouldn’t have, but we’re all a
little blind when it comes to what
powers our 4X4s in this country.
I caught up with Sav on a
recent day trip to Bunyip State
Forest in Victoria, a trip that
featured a line up of serious
off-road machinery that we’ll be
featuring in future issues. But it
was coffee that got me interested
in this FJ and its owner. Oh, and
the colour. Some colours pop in
pics, and the FJ’s blue is one of
the best.
When you’re running up and
down hills (mountains) shooting
1000s of pics, just the idea that
a coffee and a five-minute break
is possible, keeps you going.
Sav was packing coffee and was
hell-bent on punching a couple
of cups out, and while it never
happened – we were too busy
– it got us talking, and I soon
found myself sitting in the best
riding 4X4 I’d ever sat my butt in;
seriously. Forget farting on the
couch; this FJ is as close as it
gets to riding on a cushion of air.
It glides over serious potholes
so smoothly, it leaves your brain
scrambling to work out where
the jarring impact you were
expecting went. You have to force
yourself to adjust to the quality
of the ride and stop tensing in
anticipation of the feedback from
each obstacle the FJ glides over.
Towards the end of the Bunyip
trip, we tackled a long, steep,
rutted and muddy hill climb. It
had beaten two standard Patrols
and was as rough as guts, but