Original 1950s Toyota advertisement for the company's early model Land Cruiser, the second generation J20.
"Toyota University last year sent the best equipped archaecological expedition ever to probe the mysteries of the Inca empire. They are now back in Tokyo with a wealth of new facts and discoveries. Leaders of the expedition credit much of its success to the performance of five Toyota Land Cruisers with carried them 20,000 km over trackless deserts and 5,000 m mountains..."
The Toyota Land Cruiser (Japanese: トヨタ・ランドクルーザー or Toyota Rando-Kurūzā) is a series of four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is Toyota's longest running series of models – as of 2019, the sales of the Land Cruiser totaled more than 10 million units worldwide.
The genesis of the Toyota Land Cruiser began in 1936, when the Imperial Japanese Army introduced the Kurogane Type 95 four-wheel drive reconnaissance vehicle – five years later in 1941, in a separate development, the Japanese Government asked Toyota develop a light truck for the military based on seized Willys Jeeps the same year in the Philippines.
Fast forward to the post-WWII era in June 1954, the name "Land Cruiser" was coined by Toyota technical director Hanji Umehara. "In England we had another competitor – Land Tover. I had to come up with a name for our car that would not sound less dignified than those of our competitors. That is why I decided to call it 'Land Cruiser'," he recalls.
Production of the first generation of the Land Cruiser began in 1951. The second generation of the Land Cruiser quickly followed, under the 20 Series badge. It was designed to have a more civilian appeal than the first gen Land Cruiser BJ for export reasons, with more stylish bodywork and a better ride courtesy of longer four-plate leaf springs which had been adapted from the Toyota Light Truck. It also had a more powerful 3.9 L six-cylinder gas engine but adopted the previous generation's three-speed gearbox.
The Land Cruiser would eventually be produced in convertible, hardtop, station wagon, and cab chassis body styles, and its reliability and longevity have led to huge popularity, especially in Australia, where it is the best-selling body-on-frame, four-wheel drive vehicle. In fact, Toyota extensively tests its Land Cruiser in the Australian outback – considered to be one of the toughest operating environments in both temperature and terrain.
Dimensions: 10.25 inches wide by 14 inches high