- 2 days ago
There’s no denying that the Land Cruiser is one of the best off-roaders you can buy. However, with so many varieties available to buy, which is the best when it comes to going off-road?
Well, to find out, we’ve got our hands on three varieties. We’ve got the FJ Cruiser with its lightweight chassis (based on the same platform as the 150 Prado), the heavy-duty Land Cruiser 70 with its large load bed, and the station-wagon Land Cruiser 80.
In terms of performance, the three cars are relatively matched. The FJ Cruiser is powered by a 4-litre V6 petrol that puts down 272hp and 380Nm, the Land Cruiser 70 has a 4.5-litre V8 diesel with 255hp and 568Nm, while the Land Cruiser 80 has a 4.2-litre straight-six diesel with 250hp and 600Nm.
In terms of off-roading capabilities, all three cars have been lifted, are fitted with proper off-road tyres, and have several mods to help them adapt to some of the more extreme challenges on this off-road course.
But which will come out on top? You’ll need to stick with Mat to see for yourself!
Well, to find out, we’ve got our hands on three varieties. We’ve got the FJ Cruiser with its lightweight chassis (based on the same platform as the 150 Prado), the heavy-duty Land Cruiser 70 with its large load bed, and the station-wagon Land Cruiser 80.
In terms of performance, the three cars are relatively matched. The FJ Cruiser is powered by a 4-litre V6 petrol that puts down 272hp and 380Nm, the Land Cruiser 70 has a 4.5-litre V8 diesel with 255hp and 568Nm, while the Land Cruiser 80 has a 4.2-litre straight-six diesel with 250hp and 600Nm.
In terms of off-roading capabilities, all three cars have been lifted, are fitted with proper off-road tyres, and have several mods to help them adapt to some of the more extreme challenges on this off-road course.
But which will come out on top? You’ll need to stick with Mat to see for yourself!
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MotorTranscript
00:01So, oh, this is your f***ing directions.
00:04Which Toyota is the best off-roader?
00:06The lightweight chassis, the heavy-duty, or the station wagon?
00:09Let's find out by comparing them in a series of off-road challenges.
00:15We're going to start off with an uphill drag race.
00:17It's a 4.0-litre V6 petrol versus a 4.5-litre V8 diesel versus a 4.2-litre straight
00:23-six diesel.
00:24Let's go.
00:24Three, two, one.
00:34Whoa! Whoa, go, FJ!
00:36Oh, everything has fallen out of the glove box.
00:50Max is in the manual, and I think he was in neutral in the end of that.
00:55Oh, dear. I've got some tidying up to do.
00:57So, we had a stall out on the line.
00:59You had a stall out on the line. Does that mean that you stalled it?
01:04I didn't stall it, but, yes, it was stalled on the line.
01:07Oh, sorry. You mean Max stalled it.
01:10That's correct.
01:11I remember my first day at school. It was nerve-wracking, and everyone's watching. It's just difficult.
01:16Right, what we're going to do is swap drivers so that the professional racing driver is driving the manual.
01:20I best not stall it now.
01:22Here we go again.
01:23Three, two, one.
01:26Oh, come on, FJ. Oh, it's so close.
01:45Oh, blimey.
01:46That was so close, Sam.
01:47I don't know.
01:48I think you won because you went up and forwards.
01:51Did I go high?
01:52Yeah.
01:53Oh, my God. That hurt my back a bit.
01:54So, you score three points if you win, two points if you come second, one point if you come last,
01:59and any car that doesn't complete a challenge gets no points.
02:01That means that, so far, the scores are three to the FJ, two to the heavy-duty, and one to
02:06the station wagon.
02:07Next challenge.
02:08This next challenge will test these cars' manoeuvrability, their traction, and their ground clearance, because we can go through this
02:13rutted track, round a tree, back down there, over a dip, and up again, and across the start-finish line,
02:18and Graham will time us.
02:20You've probably noticed that all these cars have been modified with tyres and a lift, and some other bits and
02:23pieces.
02:24The station wagon is going to go first.
02:25Let's go.
02:27Oh, blimey. Rolling coal.
02:43Oh, he's doing really well there.
02:45The station wagon is quite a long car, and yet, it's also highly manoeuvrable.
02:50Let's find out what the time is.
02:51That looked really quite good.
02:53It was very good.
02:54Oh, 20.96.
02:58Look at that.
02:59Next up, we have the heavy-duty.
03:03Whoa, that sounds meaty.
03:09Although, I think he got a bit carried away there.
03:11This is not as fast.
03:13I think because of that pickup bed, it's a little bit longer.
03:17Oh, he's picking up speed now.
03:19This is impressive, actually.
03:20I'll take it all back.
03:21Whoa!
03:22Whoa!
03:22Don't crush it to me!
03:24What is that time?
03:25I don't think that was quite as quick.
03:27It wasn't.
03:28All right, let's have a look.
03:28What have we got?
03:3122.17.
03:32Right, my turn.
03:38I'm in a hurry.
03:40You're now.
03:41Oh, much swearing.
03:42I don't think I'm as fast as the station wagon through there, but blimey.
03:45With a lift and everything, you can absolutely go for it.
03:48This is nuts and so much fun.
03:51Oh!
03:53That was quick.
03:55I mean, I just didn't hold back.
03:56That was so much fun.
03:58I went for it.
03:59What are the good news?
04:00What are the bad news?
04:01Oh, I didn't win, did I?
04:03Oh, wow!
04:05A 19.24.
04:07That is the fastest I've ever done.
04:09That shows the benefit of, like, a lift and big tyres.
04:12Know what that means?
04:13Three points to the FJ, two points to the station wagon, and one to the heavy-duty.
04:18That means it's six points to the lightweight, and three points each to the station wagon and heavy-duty.
04:24Let's move on to the next challenge.
04:26This next challenge is quite scary, because we've got to go up these steps, which are very steep, really rutted.
04:30And it's going to really test these cars' chassis articulation, ground clearance, and traction.
04:36We're going to have the heavy-duty going first, which is also known as the Land Cruiser 70.
04:43So the trick here is to go steady, smooth.
04:46You might bottom out a little bit, but the trucks are designed to be able to cope with that.
04:52Oh, a wheel in the air.
04:53Wow, that's looking...
04:54Whoa!
04:56Oh, he's lost traction.
04:58Is he going to get a disqualification?
04:59He's got to get up there.
05:00Oh, no.
05:01Well done.
05:01Well done, Sam.
05:03Go on, my son.
05:04Go on.
05:06Whoa, that looks wicked.
05:08Yes!
05:12Are you proud of me?
05:13I am.
05:14Marvellous, marvellous, marvellous work, Sam.
05:16Now, all you've got to do is come down the other way.
05:24You like your wheels?
05:28Thank you, Sam.
05:48Oh, look at that.
05:50That's incredible.
05:52You did a great job there again, Sam, as well.
05:54We've got to just give some special credit to Sam, because he is driving a manual.
05:58The other two cars are auto.
06:00Max, it's you now, mate, in the 80, the station wagon.
06:12Power a little bit here, so it doesn't get stuck.
06:14He has absolutely smashed that.
06:17That is seamless.
06:18That was even better than Sam's.
06:20That was incredible.
06:21I don't know if I can do that good.
06:23Going down now.
06:31The brakes aren't the best.
06:38I don't think he's doing quite so well on the down slope as Sam did, but the uphill was amazing.
06:51Steady as she goes.
06:53Good work.
06:54Right, it's my turn in the FJ Cruiser, which is based on the same platform as the 150 Toyota Land
06:59Cruiser Prado.
07:00So, effectively, we're trying the different levels of Land Cruiser chassis.
07:05Here we go.
07:08It's got to keep the power on.
07:21Whoa.
07:24Oh, I wasn't paying attention then.
07:27What's the technique here, Graeme?
07:29Very, very slow.
07:31Take your wheels straight when you're in the track.
07:33Keep it steady.
07:33You've got about a foot.
07:34Steady, it's going to drop now, so slow.
07:37Ah!
07:39Steady.
07:40Oh!
07:40Turn your wheels up.
07:43And then just let it follow the tracks.
07:45Yeah, but keep your foot on the brake as you do it.
07:51It's actually surprisingly...
07:53Oh, God, what is...
07:55The steering's got a mind of its own.
07:58Oh, through the bushes.
07:59Sorry about the paintwork.
08:01Oh, this is easy, though.
08:02Yeah!
08:03I think that was a success.
08:05I'm not sure I beat the 80, but definitely beat the heavy duty of the 70.
08:10Let's find out what Graeme thinks.
08:12Oh, Graeme!
08:27Oh, Graeme!
08:28Why?
08:28Didn't spin a wheel.
08:30All right.
08:30And it went up there fantastically well.
08:32I would be tempted to give it to the other older one.
08:36One, it's a manual, so it was a lot harder for him to get up there.
08:38Okay.
08:39But you bottomed out.
08:40Wow, I'm surprised by that.
08:41I thought this could have won it.
08:43But no, it's three points to the 80.
08:46It's two points to the 70.
08:47And just one point to the 150, the FJ Cruiser.
08:50So that means that in the lead, we have the FJ Cruiser on seven.
08:54In second place, with six points, is the 80.
08:57And then in last place at the moment, with five points, is the 70 series.
09:01However, things could be about to change with the next challenge.
09:04Now we're going to do a downhill descent.
09:05And it's whichever car can go down in the most controlled and slowest fashion.
09:09So last past the post wins.
09:11If you have to hit your brake at any point, because these don't have hill descent control,
09:14you have to shout out brake.
09:15Graeme's going to start us.
09:16Go!
09:17Can't touch the brakes.
09:18Oh, this is good.
09:21Oh, this is amazing.
09:23It's so good.
09:26What a great feature.
09:28I'm winning so much, I can go a bit faster by speeding up using this dial.
09:33Look.
09:33Look, make it go faster.
09:35Oh, actually, I want to go slower again.
09:37Let's just do that.
09:38Oh, no, I want to go faster again.
09:40Let's do that.
09:42What a great bit of kit that is.
09:44I love it.
09:45Done.
09:45An easy victory.
09:46Do you know what I say?
09:47Technology works.
09:50Technology works.
09:51Although having a manual, if I didn't have this technology, like the 70, that did pretty
09:56well considering as well.
09:57That did very, very well.
09:57So what does that mean, Graeme?
09:59Well, this one down the slowest.
10:00Three points.
10:02Second.
10:03Two to the 70.
10:04Last.
10:05Just one point to the 80.
10:06So that means 10 points to the FJ Cruiser and seven points apiece to the 70 and 80 series.
10:13Now we're going to have a good old-fashioned drag race.
10:15First across the line this time wins.
10:18Let's go.
10:18Three, two, one.
10:23Oh, two start off the line.
10:24Come on, FJ.
10:33Come on.
10:38I'm ridding them in now, but too little too late.
10:44Oh, I can't believe the manual car won.
10:49What do you think about that, Graeme?
10:50I was a bit rubbish off the line there.
10:51Oh, that was not what I was expecting.
10:54No.
10:54To be fair.
10:54I think that was my fault.
10:55Yeah, the 70, the 80, and then you.
10:59So three points to the heavy duty.
11:01Two to the 80, which is the station wagon.
11:03And one to the lightweight, which is this, the FJ, which means overall, this is still in the lead with
11:0811 points.
11:10Then it's the heavy duty, the 70, on 10 points.
11:13Then on 9 points is the 80, the station wagon.
11:16So it's very, very close with everything to play for in the next challenge, which is my favourite challenge.
11:21Now we come to the rock roll.
11:22Simple this.
11:23It's going to check the car's chassis articulation, their traction, and their ground clearance.
11:27And we're going to have the 80, the station wagon, going first.
11:33Graeme's going to be directing us which way to go, and he's taking us on the trickiest route possible.
11:43Steady.
11:47Good steering like that.
11:49No.
11:49All right.
11:51All right.
11:52All right.
11:53All right.
12:01I'm really seeing the benefit of the lift from here.
12:04Just so much ground clearance.
12:11Those rigid axles doing their job just pushing the drive wheel down into the ground.
12:15Turn around.
12:18Whoa.
12:20Oh.
12:22Houston, we have a problem.
12:28Oh, no.
12:29Oh, he's out.
12:33Come on, Max.
12:34You're going to do better than that.
12:36Come on, Max.
12:38Come on, Max.
12:40You're going to do better than that.
12:45All right.
12:47Yeah.
12:52Ready.
12:55That's it.
12:56That way a little bit.
13:01Whoa.
13:02Great.
13:12Not bad.
13:13That seemed pretty good.
13:14Now it's time for Sam in the 70 to give it a go.
13:17So all I have to do is not fail like Max just did, and that's a win, right?
13:21It's a win against Max, but, you know, I might do even better than you.
13:25Your red little sports car is going to struggle.
13:32Whoa.
13:32Here he goes.
13:34Looking good.
13:42I feel lucky he'd go quicker.
13:45Sam, I feel like you could drive over there a lot quicker.
13:47There is so much ground clearance.
13:51Trying to take him on.
13:52Get him stuck.
13:53There's a Graham in front of me, and I think this is harder than Graham is.
14:02I think it's going to go exactly the same line as Max did, actually.
14:06It is.
14:10Take him back.
14:12Graham, I feel that this is your f***ing directions.
14:15Oh, there's points deduction for going backwards, surely, Graham.
14:19Well, if you're going to take a point off Graham, this is just mediocre directions.
14:22That's all this is.
14:23You're on full lock.
14:24You ain't going anywhere.
14:25We should score Graham as well.
14:27Slowly.
14:28That's it.
14:31Oh.
14:33That's it.
14:34Nice.
14:35Keep it on full lock.
14:37Remember, Sam's doing this with a manual gearbox.
14:46Mother of God.
14:47Will they be needing a new clutch in that afterwards, Sam?
14:50Absolutely not.
14:51Beautiful clutch control, thank you.
14:52The thing I like about Sam is he's really modest.
14:55Here we go.
14:55My turn.
14:56I cannot see a thing.
15:01There's some windows down so I can hear, Graham.
15:08You ready to stop?
15:10You are brave, Graham.
15:12Okay.
15:13I don't know what you're doing.
15:16I'm ready to drop off.
15:18I'm ready to stop.
15:22I'm ready.
15:24I'm ready.
15:26I'm ready.
15:26Keep coming.
15:28Oh, yeah, baby.
15:31F***ing hell.
15:35I'm so scared right now.
15:37You shut up.
15:38The bounce of you just dropping off a rock.
15:40You didn't do anything.
15:40That bump was the rash plate on the diff bit that they caught.
15:44So, okay, everyone caught it.
15:45Everybody caught it.
15:46But this one got over it without having to be reversed back.
15:52Do you know why that was?
15:53A more skillful driver.
15:56Come on, give me the points, Graham.
15:58What's your verdict?
15:59So, I'm going to give that to this.
16:01Oh, nice.
16:02But I'm going to give second place to the 70, last place to the station wagon.
16:09Okay, so that means that it's three points to the FJ, two to the 70, and one to the 80,
16:14which means the current scores are 14 to the FJ, 12 to the 70, and 10 to the 80.
16:21We're going into our final challenge now.
16:23This can't lose unless it's disqualified.
16:26But Sam could win.
16:27Let's find out what's going to happen.
16:29This final challenge is a scary uphill climb.
16:31So, the trick with this is lots of power, lots of momentum.
16:35Try to get to the top without stopping, because if you do, you're going to be rolling back
16:38and you might roll the car over.
16:39Anyway, we're going to have the 80 going first.
16:42Good luck to him.
16:43I hope the camera does how steep this hill is justice.
16:46I'm pretty scared.
16:47You are the guinea pig, Max.
16:48Come on.
17:03That looked easy.
17:04I thought you need to go faster, faster, faster, but you just crawled up there, Max.
17:07Perfect.
17:08Slowly but surely, Matt.
17:10Go on, Sam.
17:16Sam's going quite steady as well.
17:18Oh, he's losing momentum, but he's...
17:20No, no, he's still going.
17:24Great work.
17:25I'm really under pressure.
17:26Don't cock this up.
17:27Let's get the old diff locker on.
17:29Here we go.
17:40That flew up there.
17:42But Sam did it better.
17:45How?
17:46Why?
17:46Why?
17:47It just controlled its climate there so much better.
17:50The wheels weren't spinning as much as this one were.
17:52Okay.
17:52How about the 80?
17:54If I could give them equal scores, I'd give them the 80 and this the same.
17:58You've got to choose one.
17:59I've got to choose one.
18:00I'm going to give it to the 80.
18:01What?
18:02Okay, right.
18:03So that means we've got three points to the 70, two to the 80, and one to the FJ, the
18:09150.
18:10That means then, Graham, that it's a tie for first place, both on 15 points, the FJ and the 70,
18:17with the 80 on 12.
18:19So, Graham, seeing as it's a dead heat, we need you to decide which one wins and why.
18:24Okay, right.
18:25I would give it to this one because, overall, it's won more of the challenges outright over the other one.
18:33So, that's right.
18:34It won four of the challenges, whereas the 70 won only two.
18:37There we go.
18:38That's Graham's choice.
18:38I hope you'll enjoy the video.
18:39If you did, give it a like.
18:41Let me know some other off-road battles you'd like to see in the comments below.
18:43If you want to watch some other videos, click on the windows.
18:45And if you love this kind of content, we've got some more great off-road videos coming soon.
18:49Make sure you subscribe to CarWow.
18:50Thanks for watching.
18:51See you next time.
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