The new generation Toyota Land Cruiser will have the option of a model with a more sporting flavour.

CONSIDER it an adventure machine with serious off-road credentials rather than a tarmac-tearing sports truck.

That’s the tenor of Toyota New Zealand’s advice in respect to its intent to head the new Land Cruiser 300 Series family with a variant enhanced by the make’s hard-hitting performance sub-brand, Gazoo Racing.

At the moment Gazoo imprints locally with the GR Supra sports car and the GR Yaris, an all paw hot version of the brand’s small budget hatch produced as a road car to meet World Rally Championship homologation requirements. The new 86 sports coupe will be a GR and, ultimately, the world will see the opus; a supercar to be as a road legal equivalent of the racing machines which it competes with in World Sportscar Racing.

In October, there will be a GR Sport Land Cruiser 300 Series.

This will become a new flagship, sitting above new generation versions of the VRX and VRX Limited editions that continue over from the now defunct 200 Series.

It’ll bear the same badge as those high-performance cars, but whereas they are designed to stomp harder on seal, the off-roader is being attuned to deliver even more of what it is already good at it standard form: Extreme off-roading aptitude.

Hence why, even though it will have specific mechanical enhancements, the Gazoo magic will steer clear of the engine bay. The 3.3-litre twin turbo V6 diesel maintains the same 225.kW and 700Nm tune as in the other versions releasing on October 1.

Will that be a turn-off; would Toyota New Zealand benefit from having a Land Cruiser fettled to the same high-performance formula that has delivered a host of sizzler SUVs, primarily from Europe?

TNZ will keeping keen eye on the interest in the 68 examples it has secured for sale this year, but the brand’s Land Cruiser specialist, Logan Potter, is confident the recipe is right.

“There’s a tier system to the GR product line,” he explains. “At the very top are the GR products, the Yaris and Supra and the next 86.

“Underneath that we have GR-S and within that product range there are two tiers – cars with just appearance packages and then there is a tier with the appearance pack and small performance enhancements.”

The recently unveiled CH-R GR-S is an example of that. It has additional body bracing, upgraded brakes and the electronic power steering tune has been recalibrated.

“Land Cruiser is in the same tier (as CH-R).”

Even though he says the model cannot be compared with something like a Porsche Cayenne, he does seem similarity between Toyota’s exercise and what Nissan’s NISMO and Mitsubishi’s just-revived Ralliart aim to present.

“But we don’t pitch it against anyone, really. We just let it do its own thing. It will be unique.”

The base ideal is to be true to the vision of Toyota boss Akio Toyoda, who has tasked his engineers to present “ever better cars that are exciting.”

TNZ doesn’t discount that GR branding will influence other Toyota off-roaders, but isn’t set to fuel speculation it’s coming to the Hilux, perhaps with an edition running LC300’s V6.

A primary GR Sport ingredient is an electronic version of the presently mechanical Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System.

The system currently features hydraulics to control the vehicle’s stabiliser bar that helps improve stability and body roll at speeds while allowing for greater wheel articulation at lower speeds. The new-gen system forgoes the hydraulic set-up in favour of one that is electronically controlled.

In off-road application, it improves performance via a larger suspension stroke “achieved by effectively disabling the front and rear stabiliser bars.”

Along with KDSS, the model will achieve lockable front and rear locking differentials Adaptive Variable Suspension and four new Drive Mode options (Sport S, Sport S Plus, Comfort and Customise).

It achieves a singular look, with type-restricted cosmetic looks including a mesh design front grille, revised bumpers, 18-inch wheels with a dirt-tuned tyre and unique trim finishers inside the cabin.

The additional off-road enhancements add extra kilos so, accordingly, Toyota determined to make the GR Sport the only five-seater model in the new family, with admission the third row pair of chairs in the VX and VX Limited had to be dropped to keep the cars to a common kerb weight.