We’re not sure what you want an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser for, but you can have one. If you can afford it. There is a catch, though. It’s got six wheels instead of the standard four. There are also a few aftermarket customisations included that probably won’t prove very useful on the 4×4 trail.
The vehicle is known as the MAX 3 Six-Wheeler and is built around the Land Cruiser 76 chassis. It even hangs on to Toyota’s 4.5l V8 turbodiesel engine. It’s almost reassuring that the vehicle’s creators SVI Engineering decided the stock components were worthy of sticking around.
Land Cruiser and bruiser
The point of six wheels? So you can cart around up to 5.5 tons of weight. Body armour, the inclusion of weapons systems, or just a few alternative transportation solutions on the back are an option. The additional set of wheels isn’t driven, but both sets of rear axles have disc brakes. The stock Land Cruiser uses drums. The conversion also fixes an issue where the Cruiser’s rear wheels don’t follow the front correctly.
But you’re not going to pay attention to the wheels too much if you catch the MAX 3 when it’s on display at the Africa Aerospace and Defence Show (AAD2022). An anti-drone weapon system has been included, a feature we never knew we wanted in a vehicle. Now we must have it everywhere.
Who wouldn’t want a Land Cruiser with radar, a battle management system (BMS) capable of tracking incoming hostiles, and an automated grenade launcher? The launcher automatically disables incoming drones using close-proximity detonation. And the motorcycle? That’s so you can recover parts and circuitry from your downed foe and get back to your Toyota Tank before reinforcements show up?
MAX 3 Six-wheeler creators SVI Engineering might sound a little familiar. We’ve previously seen them convert the Mercedes G-Wagon into a bulletproof VIP transporter capable of standing up to masses of punishment. Again, there’s no reason to own one of these unless you’re a billionaire with a price on your head. But it would be awfully cool to ride around in one.