“Once upon a time, trucks were trucks. All you got was a metal box with some seats and rudimentary controls; a thing to be battered, broken, and fixed repeatedly. Adding 4-wheel-drive was just a way to abuse these glorified carts in the gnarliest terrain imaginable.

Land Rovers and Jeeps may have been the first off-road vehicles, but that great co-opter Toyota did a hell of a job building something that was similar to the originals, only better. Everyone from Colombian coffee farmers to Afghan rebels has used Toyota Land Cruisers. Anywhere people need tough, reliable trucks, you’ll find them. They’re basically U.S. Army Jeeps squeezed through another design process. The Imperial Japanese Army inherited a Jeep in 1941 when the U.S. Army retreated from the Philippines, and the rest is history. Toyota got a few more pieces to the small 4×4 puzzle when the U.S. Army paid them to build Willy’s Jeeps for the Korean theatre in the 1950s. So I guess we can’t accuse them too harshly of ripping off American design. They did, after all, do a bang up job with their interpretation.”

-Jalopnik

The best news, you can buy this fully restored beast from Cool Vintage. Head over to their website here for more details. We’ll race you there..