√This armoured Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series is ready for apocalypse now

This six-wheeler Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series can handle gunfire and explosions, and shoot drones out of the sky.

The venerable Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series has been given an extreme makeover in South Africa, making it the perfect candidate for those seeking the ultimate in protection against gunfire. And drones.

The SVI Engineering Max 3 Six-Wheeler is based on the Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series, but has been extensively modified for its armour-plated application. It’s a further development of the SVI Max 3, which is available in a variety of different body styles.

There is an extra axle added to the back of the Max 3 Six-Wheeler for additional load-carrying capacity, raising the GVM to 5500kg. However, this appears to be a ‘lazy axle’ conversion without any drive going to the rearmost wheels.

This puts the Max 3 at odds with Australian-developed conversions from Multidrive and JMacx, which are available as true six-wheel-drives.

In this new South African example, the Toyota LandCruiser’s standard body is replaced with SVI’s own design. This heavy-duty body is said to offer protection against assault rifles and anti-personnel grenades. Bullet-resistant glass can be upgraded to BR7, which is the highest rating.

SVI Engineering uses the Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series platform for its “proven reliability” and spare parts availability, as well as being more cost-effective than a unique chassis and engine.

The Max 3 Six-Wheeler is powered by Toyota’s 4.5-litre turbo-diesel V8 (151kW @ 3400rpm and 430Nm @ 1200-3200rpm), running through a five-speed manual transmission and part-time four-wheel drive.

While Australians only have the option of the 4.5-litre diesel V8 and five-speed manual, South African LandCruiser 70 Series buyers can choose between this and cheaper petrol and diesel variants.

There’s a 4.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol V6 (which Australians saw in the LandCruiser Prado, HiLux and FJ Cruiser) still available in South Africa, along with the long-serving ‘ 1HZ’4.2-litre naturally-aspirated inline-six diesel.

Australian market LandCruisers last got the 1HZ back in the mid-2000s (since first arriving in 1990), whose wholly mechanical operation and indirect injection set-up saw outputs of 96kW and 285Nm.

The SVI Max 3 Six-Wheeler can also be fitted out with an optional off-road motorbike, and an anti-drone system that can identify and target hostile drones, and shoot them out of the sky with proximity-exploding grenades.

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