MR PROFESSIONAL

BUILT AS AUSTRALIA'S MOST IMPRESSIVE BUSINESS CARD, THIS FLASH LC79 DOESN'T JUST TALK THE TALK, IT WALKS THE WALK

- DAN EVERETT 

AUSTRALIA has a love affair with the humble 70 Series LandCruiser. There's just something about them that speaks to us on an almost genetic level. Rugged and adventurous, without all the glitz and glamour that'd see them compared to a tall poppy. They're part of our culture, ingrained in us so deeply that it almost seems ludicrous that Burke and Wills didn't just load up a Troopy and slip on a pair of thongs for their ill-fated adventure up through the Red Centre. Combine those romanticised ideas of the old leaf-sprung 70 trundling along a dirt road, with the off-kilter idle of a diesel under the bonnet, and is it any wonder we collectively lost our minds over the double-cab 79? You'd be hard-pressed imagining a better vehicle for Aussie conditions.

Unless of course your name is Ben Kingham, the man behind the ideas and the spanners at OzTrack Custom. Then your job would be to literally imagine a better version of a 70 Series, and set about building them for willing customers. If Ben was a painter, we'd call this 79 his masterpiece. But what exactly has he done here to flex those creative muscles? Let's take a closer look.

TRACKING RIGHT

ANY 79 built to the nines is going to have a shopping list as long as your arm to get the suspension working, and when it comes to making the suspension work, Ben's 79 doesn't leave anything on the table. Starting from the ground up, the factory Toyota rear axle has been relegated back to the Jurassic era when it was first designed. In its place, OzTrack has slotted in a Superior Outback Tourer Diamond diff. This not only allowed a significant GVM boost up to 4T, but also corrected the trackwidth, bumping the rear in line with the front, and afforded a strength upgrade as well. The US-built 300m RCV axles slot into OzTrack 4340m billet drive plates and trick anodised axle caps for a sleek finish.