Toyota’s Land Speed Cruiser is a 2,000-horsepower monster

By Stephen Edelstein November 2, 2016

The annual SEMA show is where Toyota takes a break from being boring.

Toyota will show up at SEMA with anything from a Sienna minivan that can lap a racetrack like a sports car, to a full-on dragster disguised as an ordinary Camry. This year, Toyota continued its mad streak with a 220 mph, twin-turbocharged … Land Cruiser?

Recommended Videos

The Land Cruiser is Toyota’s equivalent of the Range Rover, a big SUV designed to tackle rough terrain at low speeds, not blast along pavement at a double-nickel pace. Over the years, the Land Cruiser has grown from a spartan work vehicle into a bulky luxury SUV, again, not the the first type of vehicle you think of when it comes to speed. That’s where this monstrous machine, which Toyota calls the Land Speed Cruiser, comes in.

Read more: Kia brings autonomous concept cars to SEMA 2016

It’s powered by the same 5.7-liter V8 used in the stock Land Cruiser, but with a pair of turbochargers Toyota describes as “volleyball sized.” The massive turbos sit on either side of the engine, sucking in air directly through inlets cut into the front fascia. The result is 2,000 horsepower, meaning this Land Cruiser is about twice as powerful as a Bugatti Veyron, and makes a Ferrari 488 GTB look like a Vespa.

Toyota didn’t offer many other details on the Land Speed Cruiser, but it does ride lower to the ground on custom wheels. Photos also show a front air dam, rear diffuser, and rear spoiler, which should improve the aerodynamic performance of this brick-shaped vehicle. The only thing needed to complete the picture is an unsuspecting supercar for the Land Cruiser to race against.

The Land Speed Cruiser isn’t the only attraction Toyota has planned for SEMA 2016. It brought a fleet of concept cars, including a tricked-out Sienna minivan, a racing version of the Tacoma TRD Pro pickup truck, and even a tuned Prius. If only Toyota could channel more of that zaniness into its production models.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Behind the horsepower: Papadakis shares the secrets of his 1000hp Supra

A couple months ago, award-winning engine builder Stephan Papadakis gave himself a challenge: to get 1,000 horsepower out of the new Toyota-BMW B58 engine found in the 2020 Toyota Supra. In the first episode of a four-part series, Papadakis showed us the initial engine removal and complete teardown. In the second episode he showed us the upgrades he was making to the engine’s internal parts. For the third episode, Papadakis revealed how he assembles a high performance racing engine, and the steps he took to get this engine ready for the dyno.

Now in the fourth and final episode, Papadakis takes us into the dyno room as he tunes the Supra's B58 engine up to his target power output. Watch the final chapter below:

Cars

The Bloodhound Land Speed Car saw its paint peel off in a 600-plus-mph test run

In the Kalahari Desert of South Africa the Bloodhound LSC (Land Speed Car) screams across the Hakskeen Pan on a hand-cleared race track 12 miles long and two miles wide. As part of a complicated testing schedule, on Saturday, November 16, Andy Green squeezed into the cockpit and took the Bloodhound out for a planned 605 miles per hour run.

Land speed records are the rock stars of the automotive world; flashy cars, drivers with boat loads of courage and self-confidence and car owners with boat loads of cash, all seeking to make history. Green, already the fastest man on earth from a 1997 run in the Bloodhound SSC at 763 miles per hour, is looking to break his own record and catapult himself even further beyond land speed legends such as Craig Breedlove, Gary Gabelich and father and son record holders Mickey and Danny Thompson.

Cars

Toyota takes the tuning world by storm with eight Supra-based builds

Toyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra HyperboostToyota Supra Heritage EditionToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT conceptToyota Supra 3000GT concept

The Toyota Supra has always played a starring role in the annual SEMA show, an event dedicated to tuners and aftermarket parts, due to its God-like status among enthusiasts. Toyota gave the new fifth-generation model a star-studded debut by traveling to the 2019 edition of the show with no less than eight Supra-based builds in tow.