Perched on the edge of a cliff so steep and so high it feels more like you’re piloting a helicopter than a $140,000 custom truck, it’s actually reassuring to think that the vehicle you’re about to drive down it has more in common with pontoon boats, fancy fridges and expensive watches than it does most other land-bound transportation.
That’s because the vehicle you’re driving, thanks to overbuilt materials and construction, achieves a level of ruggedness only hinted at by other off-roaders’ aggressive looks. That vertical drop you’re staring it? This thing will walk you down in low range with your hands off the wheel.
It’s no coincidence that this completely bespoke vehicle looks like an old Toyota Land Cruiser. Jonathan Ward, the man responsible for both this vehicle and the Icon 4×4 company, also runs TLC, a Land Cruiser restoration specialist.
This new FJ44 is a four-door riff on Icon’s existing FJ40. The longer platform means more seats; up to six total, counting the foldaway rumble seats in the rear.
Ward has spent years driving old FJs (an internal designation for Toyota 4×4s and already legendarily capable vehicles) across rugged terrain. His experience has helped him realize the limitations of trucks built on stock platforms. So for his own built-to-order creations, he takes the principles of utility and simplicity to their logical extremes, even if that means looking outside the car world for his components.
“Most car bodies are as thick as coke cans,” Ward says, pointing out his 5/32-inch hand-crafted aluminum bodies. They’re built by a pontoon boat maker more accustomed to the needs of heavyweight party boats and are incredibly strong, rust proof and infinitely repairable. You could paint that body and it’d last a lifetime, but that’s not enough for Ward, who instead specs a rugged polyurea coating for the floor and underbody that should defy brush, rocks and the occasional rollover.
Not that rollovers should be a problem. Rather than build a ridiculous and precarious monster truck, Icon instead took an holistic approach, creating something that’s capable, but easy to drive. Ground clearance is a modest 12 inches, but the approach and departure angles are virtually vertical. While driving the Icon FJ44 in Texas Canyon, north of Los Angeles, I tackled the same rocky slope as a tube-framed, off-road only, purpose-built rock crawler, seemingly with greater ease.
Ease is a good word to describe what driving the FJ44 off-road is like. In an older FJ, you have to take care to keep your thumbs on the outside of the steering wheel; the wheels are jerked so hard side to side that you run a real risk of breaking bones just driving over difficult terrain. Not so with the Icon’s Caterpillar earth-mover-sourced wheel. Complete with power steering, you don’t need to watch your thumbs or even hold on, it’ll track straight and true over even the most difficult of obstacles.
Underneath, the Icon probably shares more commonality with that rock crawler than it does the original FJ. Engines are Corvette V-8s making 350 to 450hp. A five-speed manual transmission is standard, but an automatic (the same as that used by a Chevy Suburban) is optional. Brakes are gargantuan 6-piston, custom billet aluminum items designed to resist fade and bring the FJ’s 4,250 pounds to a halt, even on 55-degree-plus slopes.
Many of the rest of the Icon’s greasy parts are sourced from defense contractors or made to military spec. That helps with more than just toughness. The military’s philosophy of parts commonality comes with them, meaning that parts like the differentials can be replaced with off-the-shelf items you could find at any Pep Boys. Those replacements might not offer the same capability as Icon’s own, but they’d save a weekend if you needed to replace one a long way from your local handmade vehicle builder.
All those best-possible parts go a long way to justifying the $140,000 and up price tag. But Icon’s challenge is enabling customers to appreciate six-figure amenities in a vehicle that’s designed to allow water to flow through the removable doors, flooding the cabin during river crossings.
To that end, no expense is spared inside either. Those round air vents? Those are milled, anodized aluminum, not plastic. The transparent green sunshades? Lexan items from a Lear jet. The chunky steel handles that allow the windscreen to fold down are from a Sub-Zero fridge. The gauges are housed in an indestructible polymer developed by watchmaker Bell and Ross.
Perhaps the neatest detail, however, is the Chilewich material used for the seating surfaces. You’ve probably seen that adorning the tables at a fancy restaurant, where it resists stains and is easily washable. Here, its open weave allows the heated and cooled seats to work to their maximum efficiency and stands up to all the rocks, mud and dead animals likely to make their way inside an Icon vehicle.
All this talk of indestructible materials and military-grade hardware belies the most surprising thing about this ridiculously capable off-roader. The thing that sets this vehicle apart isn’t its ability to scale nearly any obstacle, it’s its ability to do that, then drive home on the highway in complete comfort.
At 6 feet 6 inches tall and 5 feet 5 inches wide, it easily dwarfs anything this side of an 18-wheeler. But sitting way up there, you’re air-conditioned, reasonably isolated from engine and road noise and operating a powerful, fast, nice-handling vehicle. That’s more than can be said for most sedans.
Because of the solid axles, strong wheels and big tires, an enormous amount of unsprung weight should negatively impact the ride. But it’s nearly as good as a modern sports car on big rims, and all that weight down low keeps the center of gravity relatively low, meaning the truck never feels as if its heaving side-to-side in corners.
And it just exudes rugged, old-school cool. On the paved canyon roads between the mountains and Icon’s headquarters north of Los Angeles, the FJ44 left every other SUV looking utterly weak and incapable, which is exactly what its buyers are paying the big bucks for.
WIRED Overbuilt to the point that every handle and switch prompts gasps of surprised delight. Quadruple the horsepower and double the torque of the 1966 Land Cruiser, with lower emissions. Apocalypse-proof capability in a package you could live with until the zombies rise. Built to order and made to measure, Icon builds you the truck you want.
TIRED Way, way outside our budget for off-road entertainment. Tackling difficult obstacles becomes almost too easy. You’ll still be able to hear the kids complaining at highway speeds.
Photos by Sean Smith/Wired.com