Toyota’s Land Cruiser has long been renowned as an indestructible machine - the workhorse of Africa, some call it - and now a Californian restorer is reinventing the vintage Toyota Land Cruiser, for future adventures to whichever end of the earth you might dream of taking it to. Corsetti Cruisers of Gardena, California take a 1980s vintage Land Cruiser and treat it, as founder Brian Corsetti puts it, like a “family heirloom”, with no detail overlooked. This is a refurbishment so complete that each customer will be driving what amounts to an almost-new vehicle.
First job: to take the vintage Toyota Land Cruiser totally apart. This is, in the jargon of the trade, a “frame-off” restoration so that Corsetti’s workshops are full of Land Cruisers in pieces, awaiting reassembly to exacting standards. That rugged cabin is totally retrimmed in leather and fitted with updated infotainment systems so that you won’t get lost on your way to the Central African Republic. Heated and cooled seats are a desirable option. Repainting to the exterior is in whichever colourway the customer specifies. If you want your vintage Land Cruiser to be a show car, you’ve come to the right place.
Power is crucial too. So, most important is what happens under the bonnet of each vintage Toyota Land Cruiser that undergoes the Corsetti Cruisers transformation process. Out goes the standard Toyota unit, good for 135 bhp, and in goes your choice of new engine. Corsetti will - for example - fit a General Motors 6.2-litre V8 pumping out a mighty 496 bhp. You’ll not only be going off-road, but doing so at some speed.
If you’re tempted - for the record, we are - Corsetti Cruisers will build the updated, uprated vintage Toyota Land Cruiser of your dreams for around £105,000, depending on specification. For highly distinctive go-anywhere, do-anything transport that’s also effectively bespoke, we’d say that’s a bargain.
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