The new Toyota Land Cruiser is great, but it’s a far cry from the open-top, boxy off-roaders the automaker built decades ago. Toyota’s Calty Design Research Center in Michigan wants to grab some of that nostalgia with its recent ROX concept SUV, which will debut at this year’s SEMA show.
The ROX, or “Recreation Open eXperience,” builds on the standard Land Cruiser 250 with custom bodywork, a lift kit, and a unique interior with 3D-printed parts. Toyota said the team had to recreate more than half of the SUV’s bodywork for the project and notes that it’s a fully functional one-off “factory” vehicle, not just a show piece.
The exterior features skeleton doors with open sections in the upper and lower portions, a front-to-rear sliding soft top, and a midgate feature that opens a pass-through between the bed and cabin. Inside, Toyota installed Heritage Orange leather upholstery with basket-weave accents, and the door panels feature stitched leather touches.
The one-piece 18-inch wheels are an exclusive Calty design, and the ROX has a custom TRD suspension system with a four-inch lift over the standard Land Cruiser. Thanks to forged aluminum control arms and wider fender flares, it also has a significantly widened track, eight inches wider than the standard model.
Toyota hasn’t indicated that the ROX or anything like it might reach serial production, but it’s hard not to see a situation in which it would be a strong seller. The new Land Cruiser, while capable, isn’t exactly a direct Ford Bronco or Jeep Wrangler competitor, and the ROX could neatly fill that gap for Toyota.
[Images: Toyota]
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