A-to-Z Guide to Green: Orange Crush
April 1, 2008
Base price: $121,000
Engine: 2.8-liter, 4-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 135 hp at 3,800 rpm
Torque: 265 ft lbs at 1,400 rpm
Zero-to-60: 9.5 seconds
Top speed: 85 mph
Fuel economy: 25 mpg to 30 mpg
Pro: Classic style, unsurpassed quality, genuine usability.
Con: Off-road brilliance compromises on-road comfort.
When Jonathan Ward reinvented Toyota’s classically tough FJ40 Land Cruiser and dubbed it the Icon (his company, TLC, sells, services and restores Land Cruisers), it was natural he not only improve the vehicle’s mechanics and performance, but also make it more eco-conscious.
Instead of just equipping the Icon with a standard Chevy V-8 engine, Ward decided to offer it with a 4-cylinder International diesel engine that feeds on biofuels. Thus, the torquey (265 ft lbs) engine can run on everything from vegetable oil to reconstituted chicken fat. (These fuels can be brewed in your backyard or purchased at an increasing number, though still relative few, local gas stations.)
"We are not creating a new vehicle and adding something new to the national fleet," Ward says. "We’re basically recycling a somewhat notoriously high-polluting vintage vehicle and putting modern, efficient systems in it."
TLC powder-coats the Icon and uses Polyurea on the floors and underside, instead of petroleum-based coatings. In the interest of being more environmentally friendly, the company is also working toward replacing the vehicle’s traditional lightbulbs with light-emitting diodes.
Ward says he modeled the Icon on the FJ40 because his clients loved its simple aesthetics, yet everything but the chassis is new, including a widened track, lengthened wheelbase and the entire mechanical system.
"It’s such a different feel than modern, cookie-cutter, robotic, disposable vehicles," Ward says. "The FJ40 was built to last as long as possible, in the harshest situations. That is the design ethic we are trying to reintroduce, and what our customers are yearning for—the continuity, simplicity of design and purpose—that the FJ40 had and is missing from modern vehicles."
TLC has begun work on different body styles for the Land Cruiser FJ45 pickup truck, which was sold in the United States from 1963 to 1967, and on the FJ43, a longer version of the FJ40 that wasn’t available here. In the future, Ward hopes to turn TLC’s attention to other classic sport-utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover 90, Jeep CJ7 and early Chevy Broncos.
"In the balance of dealing with these heavy utility vehicles," he says, "my personal green priorities leak into everything we do."
TLC, 818.785.2200, www.tlcicon.com
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