This industry has gone nuts. They're giving us electro-hydro-magneto-digital steering mechanisms, but then they program into their little laptops some artificial feel. If they want feel, why not the real thing? What's wrong with mechanical steering with gears and oily bits twisting against each other?
They'll make a silent electric car, and then save a playlist of proper petrol car noises to its hard drive to ward off oblivious pedestrians. If you want it to sound like a petrol engine, put a petrol engine in it.
And how about all those active flaps in exhaust systems, and the well-known fact that some mechanical engineers today are more like sound engineers, tuning the exhaust tone to make the engine sound more powerful than it is. Good old individual throttle bodies and a straight-through pipe and you don't need any sound adjustment, just a pair of ear plugs.
They've done it to transmissions too, programming automated downshift throttle blips and taking away the father-to-son passed-on pleasure of heel-and-toe. But sometimes there are things that are already invented to such a high degree, that there's simply no more inventing left to do. The wheel springs to mind. Man has never once tried to change it from a circle to, say, a triangle. This one's pretty safe and sound I reckon. Another invention safe and sound is the Toyota Land Cruiser. Ever since the Abominable Snowman built the original from rocks and mammoth bone, the car's remained pretty much the same. Engine, ladder frame, four big, big tyres, a locking diff and tall suspension. Now, however, Arctic Trucks has reinvented the wheel.
Uh-oh… They haven't powered up their MacBook Pros in place of their torque wrenches, have they?
No. This Land Cruiser is as mechanical and sturdy as ever and all the upgrades are proper car upgrades that proper car fans, not IT technicians, can understand.
And just to remind you, Arctic Trucks is the company that took BBC's Top Gear to the North Pole, specialising in Hilux trucks and other Toyotas. For Al Futtaim Motors, the distributor of Toyota in the UAE, Arctic Trucks helped to commemorate the 60th birthday of the Land Cruiser with this celebratory Anniversary Land Cruiser Xtreme.
The main changes are gigantic 35in tyres and a 40mm suspension lift, giving the Land Cruiser even more off-roading capability. This is a bit like giving Lionel Messi another pair of legs; it's called an unfair advantage over the competition. The wider fender flares and addition of mud flaps and running board extensions give the Xtreme a matching look, while the interior gets 60th Anniversary diamond-stitched leather.
To handle the weight of the massive footwear, Arctic Trucks also added Koni front and rear shocks, which house more oil to handle more heat; great for the desert. There are also heavy duty bump stops, so as you can see everything's been done to attempt and retain the Land Cruiser's supple ride quality.
But it's not enough, because huge tyres on 17in wheels — no matter how well balanced and fitted — will always be noisy. These sound like an Airbus A380 at takeoff, but there's certainly no comfort lost in the ride.
Once you steer off the road and on to the sand, the upgrades are all playing on your team so that you can traverse deserts and dunes even easier than before. Since there's much more rolling resistance here and less inertia, you need healthy heaps of throttle, but thankfully there's a 5.7-litre V8 thrown into the mix too. It delivers 362bhp at 5,600rpm through a six-speed automatic, and with the tyre pressures on those 35in all-terrains way down increasing your contact patch to approximately the size of a tennis court, the Xtreme starts behaving like a hovercraft; it goes anywhere. And the engine never, ever feels burdened with weight or lack of momentum. In fact, you just sit there at around 2,000rpm pretty much all the time.
Verdict
Arctic Trucks and Al Futtaim Motors never set out to reinvent the wheel here, I mean the Land Cruiser. They used the tried and tested approach of more rubber, more power, and more suspension, which on a superbly-capable base platform like the Land Cruiser just takes it a notch further into the untouchable zone. In terms of automotive evolution, this Xtreme is more like the invention of the Otto cycle, rather than the silicone chip, and we love it for that.
Specs & ratings
- Model Land Cruiser Xtreme
- Engine 5.7-litre V8
- Transmission Six-speed auto, AWD
- Max power 362bhp @ 5,600rpm
- Max torque 530Nm @ 3,200rpm
- Top speed NA
- 0-100kph NA
- Price Dh338,000
- Plus Amazing off-road, rugged looks
- Minus Tyre and wheel noise
