Toyota meets Tonka in the FJ43, the drool-worthy mountain-climbing machine from Icon, a three-year-old California brand that has become the ultimate reanimator of Toyota’s seminal Land Cruisers. Jonathan Ward’s crew starts with an original’s old steel bones and ends with a masterpiece of all-conquering capability with vintage charm. Their latest New School model is a turnkey terror with a 550 hp Corvette V-8. Not only can it grab big air from here to Cabo, it’s a surprisingly livable street ride, too. But it ain’t cheap: This handbuilt beauty will set you back $100 grand. Get yours at icon4x4.com. 

1) The Build
The bones of the Icon are an original vintage Toyota FJ Cruiser chassis, found in SoCal auto graveyards. Once unearthed, Icon strips ’em bare and begins to build the perfect monster. The resto takes five men 350 hours of labor (not including union-sanctioned cigarette breaks).

2) The Designer
Ward’s early custom creations served as design inspiration for Toyota’s own FJ Cruiser, reborn in 2006. Disheartened by the mainstream result, Ward fantasized about how to keep the Cruiser’s classic style but beam the technology five decades ahead. You see the result here.

3) The Power Plant
This beast rocks a brand-new six-liter Corvette LS2, spared from a tortured life of cruising the Jersey coast to a Maroon 5 sound­track. Ward bumps it up to 550 hp and 580 lb.-ft. of torque, nestles it into an aluminum body, and wraps it in a tough powder coat. Comfy!

4) Shock Treatment
Forget the old-fashioned leaf springs. Robust Eibach coils and nitrogen shocks deliver 12 springy inches of wheel travel, which makes the icon jump like Michael Vick when he hears a barking dog, while allowing the truck to attain impressively knotty angles.

5) The Interior
This FJ will last longer than David Duchovny on a Levitra bender, so its makers avoid obsolescence with high-tech add-ons like a removable nav system. Bespoke gear even includes ano­dized aluminum visors, spotted on Bob Seger’s Learjet when he flew in to pick up his own Icon.