Today, the Toyota Land Cruiser is not dissimilar to any other luxury SUV. It’s packed with features, offers oodles of space onboard and is a pretty luxurious place to be. But back in the day it was a humble machine and a formidable off-roader.
For anyone looking to relive the good old days of the Land Cruiser, I might have found the perfect purchase.
As part of its French Collection sale, online auction house Artcurial is offering this 1998 Toyota Land Cruiser, which competed in the grueling Dakar rally in 1999 and 2003.
In the sale, Artcurial is offering a host of cars from Richard Romagny’s car collection, including this impressive Land Cruiser.
According to the auction house, Romagny purchased the truck in 1998 before converting it to run in the Dakar. The conversion included fitting a 4.2-liter turbocharged six cylinder engine, reinforcing the front and rear axles, and fitting two shock absorbers at each wheel.
The race-ready truck also has systems for de-sanding the wheels, and inflating or deflating the tires while driving. Finally, a 310-liter fuel tank was fitted to expand its range, and the rear was altered to fit up to three spare wheels.
All these alterations helped drive the truck to 35th place in the 1999 Dakar with Romagny at the wheel. The car has also been driven in a host of other rallies since 2000.
The auction will go live on November 22nd and the Dakar-spec Land Cruiser is expected to sell for between €70,000 and €130,000 – that’s roughly $80,000 to $150,000.
This is easily the best Land Cruiser to hit the auction block since Tom Hanks sold his old truck, in a Bonhams auction for $123,200.
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