The other day we gave you a rundown of eight cool cars that made their debut at the LA Auto Show. Today though we turn our attention to the concepts. Oddly enough, not many concepts made their way to the show, but the few that did were fairly cool.
Toyota FT-AC
The Toyota FJ Cruiser is one of the best modern off-road vehicles ever made. Its ruggedness and reliability made it a favorite of overlanders, off-roaders, and mall crawlers across the globe.
Here in the States, sales for the FJ stopped in 2014. However, the Cruiser still commands an insanely high price in the second-hand market. This is due to the fact there simply isn’t a wide range of choices for reliable off-roaders with adequate room for four people — especially if you despise any Jeep like most FJ owners do.
When the FJ left us here in the US, enthusiasts — rather loudly we might add — demanded a replacement. Nothing came outside a Pro version of the Toyota 4Runner, which doesn’t exactly excite the FJ crowd. Toyota heard this and has since released a couple of concept vehicles to slowly build FJ owners’ hopes up before dashing them again.
The FT-AC, the Future Toyota Adventure Concept, is the latest in this line of FJ replacement dream slayers.
The FT-AC is squarely aimed at adventure types. You know the ones who climb a mountain in the morning and kayak down a raging river in the afternoon. However, it still needs enough maturity to allow owners to go to their IT jobs Monday through Friday.
To allow for the adventure side, Toyota equipped the FT-AC with all the standard kit you’d expect in an adventure vehicle. Beefy skid plates, a bunch of high output LED lights, and a roof rack all find themselves on the concept. Also, there’s a bike rack that contains a Specialized mountain bike that you can attach the fogs light from the vehicle to.
The SUV sits on a long wheelbase chassis with a wide track to give it a tough look. The 20-inch wheels and meaty highway all-terrain tires round out the look.
Toyota did a fantastic job of putting everything that’s terrible for off-roading in one vehicle. Thankfully, it did put on several high strength recovery hooks for when you invariably get stuck.
There’s no word on the engine, but given its RAV4 size, it’s more than likely the 2.5-liter four pot. Toyota does say that the FT-AC has a next-generation hybrid system, but gives no indication as to what that really is. Since the 2.5-liter is already the engine of choice for the hybrid RAV4, we think this makes sense.
Other buzzword worthy features include torque vectoring AWD with locking diffs and a traction control system made for a dynamic driving experience.
Obviously, Toyota has no plans to make the FT-AC at this time and more than likely never will. It’s probably for the best though; at least FJ owners know they can still continue to charge an obscene amount of money for their used rigs.
GMC Sierra 2500HD All Mountain Concept
Toyota wasn’t the only one to show off a bespoke off-road concept in LA. GM threw caution to the wind and made one of the most extreme off-roaders to date.
Riding on a set of Mattrack 150 Series Tracks, the Sierra is about as all-terrain as you can get. The go anywhere tracks work similarly to that of a tank or bulldozer. However, they are much easier to use and maintain than traditional tracks since they use the vehicle’s axle assembly to power them.
The All Mountain isn’t the first truck — or car — to wear these either. Ken Block famously installed the same type of track system on both an F-150 Raptor and a Subaru WRX rally car. Also, the average consumer can purchase the system directly from Mattrack for about $20,000.
To help spin those heavy tracks, the All Mountain uses the same 6.6-liter turbo diesel found in the production HD trucks. With 445hp and 910lb-ft of torque, it’s a serious engine. All that power should make short work of whatever you happen to come across.
To help give it the perfect bro-truck look, the All Mountain gets all the standard flair. Bright white underbody LED lights, a Rigid LED light bar, extreme looking graphics, and a banging Kicker stereo system round out the options list. We can almost see it rolling coal now while bombing up a ski slope.
While the concept isn’t meant for production, it is based off a new truck that you can buy, the Sierra 2500HD All Terrain X. The All Terrain X features Z71 suspension, chunky off-road tires, and a rear light rack straight out of the 1980s. It’s sort of meant to be the GMC answer to the Raptor, except with a diesel and not made for bombing through the desert at 100mph.
It’s a ridiculous vehicle for sure. However, it does look like it would be a ton of fun to cruise around Vail or Park City in.
Volkswagen I.D. CROZZ Concept
Since diesel power didn’t work out so well for VW, it’s turned its attention to electrifying the brand. The I.D. CROZZ Concept is just the latest prototype to show buyers it’s indeed a green, eco-friendly company.
The CROZZ will be fully electric when it supposedly goes on sale in 2020. It’ll be followed shortly thereafter by the I.D. Buzz — the VW Bus revival — in 2022.
Powered by a pair of electric motors with one sitting at either end of the SUV, the CROZZ generates 302hp. That’s actually really impressive for a compact SUV — especially when the current Tiguan only has 200 ponies.
According to VW, the range should be right around 300 miles. Its other party piece is that when the batteries are completely flat they’ll be able to reach an 80% charge in just 30 minutes thanks to a 150 kWh charging system. While not revolutionary by any means, it’s still right where it should be with regards to EV tech.
Also like other EVs on the market, the CROZZ is expected to get the new I.D. Pilot system. This autonomous driving feature from VW will use four laser scanners that will pop up from the roof of the vehicle when activated. Inside the steering wheel will also retract and a calming, red glow will fill the cabin. How very HAL-like.
VW doesn’t indicate which level of autonomy the CROSS will have. However, given the brief bit of info, it should be right there with the Audi A8.
The other big feature VW talks about is the lighting the CROZZ will have. Dynamic LED lights both inside and out will treat drivers and passengers to a little light show when they open the doors. Then when you perform nearly any interaction with the vehicle, five interior lights will display a bespoke color or pattern. VW calls this Smart Lighting but in reality, they seem like they would be more irritating than anything.
The CROZZ will obviously get toned down some once the production model rolls around. It’s nice to see VW picking up from Dieselgate though and hopefully, the electrification pays off in the long run.
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