Toyota surprised attendees of the 2016 SEMA Show with a very unusual Land Cruiser build. Instead of conquering boulder-strewn trails like most modified Land Cruisers, the Land Speed Cruiser was designed to do one thing: go very, very fast. Now, the custom Toyota has captured a record for doing just that, clocking a GPS-verified speed of 230.02 mph. Toyota says this achievement beats the previous record for world’s fastest SUV by 19 mph.
The record was set by former Toyota NASCAR driver Carl Edwards at Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. There, the Land Speed Cruiser had 2.5 miles of paved runway to stretch its legs and put its twin-turbo 5.7-liter V-8 to good use. The heavily modified Toyota 3UR-FE V-8 uses two enormous Garrett turbochargers that can produce as much as 55 psi. To handle that level of boost, the engine got upgraded connecting rods and pistons, a new intake manifold, and much more. Toyota says the powerplant can “safely and reliably” make in excess of 2,000 hp.
As you can probably tell from the photos, the Land Speed Cruiser has been lowered substantially to improve aerodynamics, stability, and, most importantly, controllability at high speeds. On the first run at Mojave Air and Space Port, Edwards was able to hit 211 mph matching the previous record before the SUV started running out of braking room. The engineers then upped the boost and the Land Speed Cruiser hit 230.02 mph. Toyota says it could go even faster with enough road.