Desert Stormer

A Land Cruiser? In street machine? If the blown big-block isn’t enough to ease your pain, read on

- Boris Viskovic

First things first: No, Colin Byrne did not spend $130,000 on a brand new Land Cruiser Sahara and then proceed to cut it up, chuck in a blown big-block and fit some airbags. In fact, the build story on this car is very similar to many others that have graced these pages over the years, starting off with a vehicle that was a little bit worse for wear and bringing it back to life.

What’s not immediately obvious is how much work was done to get this burly 200 Series looking as good as it does, and a big part of that was figuring out how to get the Cruiser to squat down so low over those massive 24x12 and 24x15 wheels that the rocker panels sat on the ground. More on that later!

For those of you who may not have heard of him, Colin campaigned his SEWERSIDE Holden Shuttle burnout van for 13 years before retiring it a couple of years ago. “We were down at the Perth Motorplex when it first opened in 2000 and I thought: You know what, it’s going to be more fun if we are part of this down here instead of watching it,” Colin recalls. “Someone said: ‘Why don’t you see if you can put a V8 in that old van that’s out the back?’ Seven motors later, we retired it.”

Initially the old plumber’s van had a 253 and Trimatic in it before progressing to a few 308s, then stroker 308s, then finally LS. In the end, the van was pumping out 600hp thanks to an LS3 with a carb and diet of methanol.