At friend's friend housewarming in rather fancy part of town. Drove my 40 over. Someone said "hey, come look at (home owner) Land Cruiser." We walk over and I don't see a Land Cruiser. There's a, hmmm, think that's a Jeep Rubicon or Raptor Bronco...nope, still looking for the FJ40, but all I see are C8 Z06 with garish stripes and carbon wings, several Raptors, new Defenders, 2015 GT40 (yeah, THAT kind of neighborhood), 992 Turbo S.
I ask "where's the Land Cruiser" and someone points to what I thought was the shiny jacked up Bronco Raptor mere feet away. It's an Icon. If it wasn't for the hood emblem and someone telling me I never would've known it was a Toyota. Roll cage front to back, think it had 37s, Tartufo buckets, greenish-black paint and a tiny steering wheel.
He bought it from auction. With fees, enclosed shipping, tax etc someone said between bites of delicious carne asada "it's a quarter million." Shut the front door!! So I did search history and whaddya know, there are plenty of 200K-ish restores from FJ Company and Icon ending in a bidding frenzy to avoid that 2 year wait. This "FJ40" was not that uncommon. Just to me.
That started the housewarming roundtable. Some said why bother, it's not a 40, zero interest. OEM or nothing at all. Others said it's the same as a Singer Porsche. Presumably same demographic, same use case, still a Porsche, just reimagined with a big price and long wait. An Icon is still a Land Cruiser. Most are garage queens, don't off road, not really an investment, but a flex. My friend's opinion was Icon and its ilk aren't far removed from a great home mechanic's passion project of small block Chevy/fuel injection/aluminum tub 40.
Wondering if any forum members own/has owned an Icon. Or wants to snag a FJ Company on an auction site as bucket list.
Wondering if you or someone you know has gone from a $$$$ restomod or even a Chevy/fuel injected/4 discs/modern sound system and nice paint back to "original" mechanical and patina the older you get. A "less is more" kind of thing, back to basics.
As for me I lusted after that GT40. The $250,000 FJ40 didn't do a thing for me. But I can appreciate why someone would want one. I think.
I ask "where's the Land Cruiser" and someone points to what I thought was the shiny jacked up Bronco Raptor mere feet away. It's an Icon. If it wasn't for the hood emblem and someone telling me I never would've known it was a Toyota. Roll cage front to back, think it had 37s, Tartufo buckets, greenish-black paint and a tiny steering wheel.
He bought it from auction. With fees, enclosed shipping, tax etc someone said between bites of delicious carne asada "it's a quarter million." Shut the front door!! So I did search history and whaddya know, there are plenty of 200K-ish restores from FJ Company and Icon ending in a bidding frenzy to avoid that 2 year wait. This "FJ40" was not that uncommon. Just to me.
That started the housewarming roundtable. Some said why bother, it's not a 40, zero interest. OEM or nothing at all. Others said it's the same as a Singer Porsche. Presumably same demographic, same use case, still a Porsche, just reimagined with a big price and long wait. An Icon is still a Land Cruiser. Most are garage queens, don't off road, not really an investment, but a flex. My friend's opinion was Icon and its ilk aren't far removed from a great home mechanic's passion project of small block Chevy/fuel injection/aluminum tub 40.
Wondering if any forum members own/has owned an Icon. Or wants to snag a FJ Company on an auction site as bucket list.
Wondering if you or someone you know has gone from a $$$$ restomod or even a Chevy/fuel injected/4 discs/modern sound system and nice paint back to "original" mechanical and patina the older you get. A "less is more" kind of thing, back to basics.
As for me I lusted after that GT40. The $250,000 FJ40 didn't do a thing for me. But I can appreciate why someone would want one. I think.
