I AM NOT A GREY NOMAD; I DIDN’T BUY IT TO TOW SHIT AROUND AND GO SLOW IN

High/low torque converter lock-up kit, and a secondary fuel filter kit.

Then – yep, we haven’t finished yet – there’s the Manta/toyotune custom dual three-inch exhaust system, with a high-flow stainless steel cat and twin 3.5-inch pipes to dump it all out the back. The end result is, to put it bluntly, very bloody impressive.

“It weighs 3.6-tonne and it will break traction on all four wheels,” he enthuses. “The front will point in the air – it scares people. It’s pretty good.”

And before anyone asks how you stop this behemoth, Matt has already answered that question, fitting DBA T3 ventilated and slotted discs front and rear, along with DBA XP650 pads. He highly rates the ‘strong’ discs and reckons the pads perform perfectly even under heavy load and, most importantly, offer enhanced cooling properties for urban stop/start driving.

THE DIRTY SIDE

Yeah, this LC200 is shiny and new, but don’t think for a second that stops Matt getting out on boys’ weekends away and dune driving near home. To make sure that all goes smoothly, he’s fitted the Cruiser out with all the essential bush touring items. Under the bonnet there’s an Intervolt dual-battery setup with deep cycle batteries to take care of additional power requirements. Matt raided TJM’S exterior protection catalogue to ensure that schmick paint job (with MOS full body paint correction and quartz glass coating) stays just that. Up front is a TJM colour-coded bumper cut bar, matched with rock sliders and Raptor-coated steps and scrub bars. Hanging off the front bar is a TJM 12,000lb winch, nestled in an orange colourcoded cradle.

For night-driving duties, Matt has gone the full monty, with a Lazerlamp light bar, and Lightforce HTZS supplying the driving lights, rear floods and tailgate light. The LC200 is a relatively big wagon allowing for plenty of kit to be carried, but Matt has, again, ensured the vehicle is ready for any test and fitted a Rhino-rack Pioneer platform on backbone roof rack system, and used Yakima lockable mounts for his Rhino shovel. Also up top is provision to store Maxtrax and there’s a lockable bazooka tube and brackets (Raptor coated). Hanging off the side of this is a Darche 270 awning (complete with its own light – a custom-adapted Korr Marine unit), and there’s a Darch telescopic ladder for easy access to the gear up there too.

And there’s more; as with everything Matt has done with this LC200, future-proofing it has been the driving force. For those boys’ weekends and, no doubt, those longer family journeys once the little’un is up for it, there’s an ARB 60L fridge/freezer, a 10L water tank, ARB dual-compressor and reserve tank (cleverly fitted into the rear quarter panel), and a Custom Installations drawer system that features an inbuilt 12-inch JW subwoofer and 600W amp. The interior includes the standard VX leather, with Matt adding essential comms (a GME UHF radio and ZCG dual-whip 6db antenna) to finish it off.

NOW OR NEVER

By planning every mod, then researching the best one for each job, Matt has created a rig that performs brilliantly now, but is also more than capable of tougher stuff in the future, or – just maybe – some leisurely sojourns. Still, that stuff’s a long way off, Matt reckons, and in the meantime there’s a shit-tonne of fun to be had in the Cruiser.

“I am not a grey nomad; I didn’t buy it to tow shit around and go slow in,” he laughs. “It’s for launching off the lights, boys’ weekends away and just a bit of fun, jumping the dunes, all that kind of stuff.

“Maybe when we settle down a bit, we’ll put a caravan on the back. But, for now, I am still rocking a swag and we’ll just thrash it about.”

After all the research and hard work that’s gone into this tough LC200, we reckon it’s more than up for a damn good thrashing.