Adventuremobile Spotting: FJ45/BJ45 Bandeirante
We head to an annual car show in the Bay Area called the Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance. It’s one of the longest running concours in the United States. 65 years and it’s going stronger than ever. What’s great is not only seeing some top quality amazing vehicles on display. But the parking lot is also a great place to find some amazing vehicles that people bring. This was a first for us. We spotted what looked like a Toyota Land Cruiser. The LWB truck variant known as the FJ45 but this one was a bit different at first glance. It was an extended cab. Almost a 4 door. I have never seen this configuration. The other oddball thing here was the square headlights. Square headlights was always a way manufactures in the 80’s tried to make their tried and true utilitarian platforms to look a bit more modern. Jeep did this with the CJ was replaced with the Wranger YJ in 1987. In this case, we learned that this was a Land Cruiser produced in Brazil, equipped with a Mercedes-Benz engine. It’s know as a Bandeirante.
Toyota’s reach all over the world as an alternative to the Jeep Willys that was left over after WWII. It was a simple, rugged and reliable off-roader for all those emergent countries who still had most of their roads made of dirt. Brazil fit this perfectly. Brazil at the time mainly had the Kaiser Jeep Corporation as the main producer of off-roading vehicles. At the time, Toyota was still a bit of an upstart. Toyota made a ton of FJ40 for the Americas and Brazil was a large market. These Brazilian FJs were constantly changing with various configurations for use all over the massive country.
These FJ’s were known locally as the “Bandeirante,” translated to English as “flag-carrier,” after the explorers, adventurers, and fortune hunters of early Colonial Brazil. It’s got some colonialist vibes but the spirit of explorations is what they were after with the name. In 1959, the first Bandeirante, as the Brazilian version is called, rolled off the production line. People are still debating what gave the vehicle its name. Speculations are that the word ‘Bandeirante‘ is somehow related to the words ‘land cruiser‘ or ‘pioneer‘ in Portuguese.
By the late 1980s/early 1990s, Bandeirantes were produced along no less than eight specific variations based on body style. Designated “OJ50” or “OJ55,”. Not sure when or how it happened, but these models all utilized the OM-364 diesel engine supplied by Mercedes-Benz for power instead of the petrol Toyota mill.
This one in particular is a 1989 Bandeirante with what looks to be a 14B Toyota Diesel - too bad it’s not the 14B Turbo from a Toyota Dyna commercial truck.
