Toyota Put a New Tundra V6 in an FJ60 Land Cruiser and Kept the Five-Speed Manual

It’s hard to say, but the FJ60 might be my favorite Toyota Land Cruiser. The FJ40 will always be the OG, but when I picture a capable and unkillable ‘Yota crawling through the jungle, I think of a big ol’ brick like the one you’re looking at here. Toyota has done something interesting for the 2025 SEMA Show by swapping out the famously bulletproof 4.2-liter inline-six for a modern Tundra‘s twin-turbo V6. That engine’s reputation is… much different than the old six-banger’s, but let me explain why I think this project is actually pretty slick.

First off, it still has a five-speed manual transmission. That was the detail that hooked me and ultimately convinced me to write a blog about this build, which Toyota calls the Turbo Trail Cruiser (a great name if you ask me). I’m almost positive this is the first time a V35A-FTS has been mated to a stick-shift, and it’s only possible because the Toyota Motorsports Garage team fabbed new engine mounts and an adapter plate for the truck. If you showed someone the interior of this rig and didn’t mention anything else about it, they’d just think it was an incredibly well-preserved example that someone put a touchscreen head unit in.

That’s kind of the whole point, too. Toyota mentioned in its press release that the crew took great pains to make this appear as close to factory as possible. No cuts were made to the firewall, all the mounting points are in their stock positions, and it’s as structurally sound as any 1985 Land Cruiser was when it left the production line in Japan.

The result is an OEM+ hot rod of sorts. The Turbo Trail Cruiser makes 389 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque, which I assure you is a lot more than the original 2F inline-six ever made. It’s also a lot more tasteful than swapping in an LS3, although I don’t mind those either.

Toyota iced the cake with some more aesthetic and functional mods like a 1.5-inch lift, a flipped front shackle, and 35-inch Continental all-terrains. The exterior was even resprayed with a PPG reproduction of Silver 147, an original Toyota color from the ’80s. The aforementioned touchscreen head unit is the command center for an updated JBL stereo system that probably sounds great blasting a little bit of Casiopea.

Anybody who wants to see the Turbo Trail Cruiser in person can view it at the Toyota booth at SEMA in Las Vegas from Nov. 4 until Nov. 7.

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