Here’s a first, for me anyway: a lifted Lexus LS400, with side pipes for the shortened exhaust too. And from the look of the mud on it, it looks like the lift might be functional, not just for appearance. Bet it’s about the nicest riding vehicle to take down a muddy trail. (Update: it’s part of a new trend, called “Battlewagons”. See comments)
It had a nice purring sort of growl when it pulled in, from that shortened exhaust. So the question is: who makes kits to lift one of these? More likely, they just used universal coil spring spacers.
I kinda like it. Why not? It probably makes it more capable than a lot of modern CUVs. As you mentioned, it does appear to be functional.
But…that driver’s side rear tire doesn’t look right…it’s awfully close to the fender.
Unfortunately that is caused by the trailing link that locates the wheel fore and aft and it means that the suspension is pretty bound up as it sits. It is not a problem with clearance though as the wheel will move back in the wheel well as the suspension is compressed. Since it is probably at or near the point of being completely bound up there will be no more downward travel so that isn’t a problem either.
Necessity is the mother of… invention?
Just waitin for the rims to come in. Be a donk soon.
Read the comment further down.
There is a new emerging trend, that has been affectionately dubbed Battle Cars. Taking regular passenger cars and giving them the off-road treatment. This Lexus fits in that mold perfectly.
To see a bunch more, check out this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battlecars/
I was at Cars & Coffee in San Diego this weekend. I saw an early 90s Volvo jacked up on big tires. What impressed me was inside the trunk. The owner redid the suspension and had remote reservoir Fox shocks. I’ll post pics of it when I’m done processing my photos from the weekend.
Here’s my favorite one from the Battlecars thread. An offroad P71 CVPI.
Yup; I’m semi-aware of that trend, having seen something similar before.
This trend was off my radar, but I can’t deny that I’ve got a soft spot for this one..
Not new by any stretch of the imagination. I built a couple back in the 80’s. Poor college student that wanted to explore the logging roads and other trails that were still open to the public at the time and couldn’t afford a 4×4.
Thanks for the headsup on Battle Cars. I remember reading years ago about a Rover P5 slung over a Range Rover platform for (now) Burberry CD Christopher Bailey. I’m not sure if his was one of these Overfinch customs.
How about a Crown Vic showing up some Jeeps on Hell’s Revenge at Moab:
Funny, I just followed a Buick Park Avenue into a supermarket parking lot this morning, riding on 22″ wheels (but “tasteful” ones in a matte black finish if that’s possible), and lifted to about this degree. while in the case of the Buick I’m pretty sure it was done for “style” purposes and little else, it didn’t really look all that out of place in traffic due to the relatively low key treatment it was given. The ride height and overall height and size of the car with the wheels and lift had it fitting in with the CUVs, SUVs and Pickups around it. I found myself wondering if ride comfort was improved or hampered by the treatment (it was riding on tires with sidewalls, not those idiotic rubber bands). Not my thing, obviously, but as I sat in my very low car trying to make a left turn while a minivan blocked my view of oncoming traffic, I could see the appeal to some degree.
Spencer, Tennessee
Well, now I am up to date on the latest automotive trends. What a world . . .
Just because you can, Son – doesn’t mean that you should.
I don’t know Dan, it’s sort of like our Highlanders…Camry BattleWagons. 🙂
The quick and easy way to lift a car with coil overs at all 4 corners that use a strut style upper mount or struts is a chunk of metal, Delrin or even plywood stacked up, between the mount and the body. The idea of moving the upper mounting point down is so that the shock is still in the middle of its travel at rest. The problem is that you go as far as this one is lifted and the suspension binds on rebound so you have a seriously crappy riding vehicle as the wheel can’t “fall” into the pot hole so the entire car crashes down.
Agreed, plus if you have bumps in a corner at speed the wheel cant follow the surface easily, which could have bad consequences.
The Lamborghini-based 2013 Italdesign Giugiaro Parcour was an “endorsement” of this trend. It was properly engineered with variable suspension geometry.
Count me as a fan of this trend, even if I wouldn’t necessarily partake in it. Seems more logical than the 99% of car trends that all have a prerequisite to slam the car. Plus with crossovers being so popular now it’s possibly the ultimate form of rebellion to take a sports car or sedan and competently take it to the former stomping grounds SUVs were bred for in the first place.
Back in the day, we simply called them “field cars”. Take an old rusty worthless car, put snow or truck tires on it, jam a couple of chunks of 2×4 in the springs to bolster the suspension and then go rip up some fields (in the fall after the harvest) or forest trails etc. Inevitably one ends up racing around the field with friends to see whose field car is fastest.
My most impressive field car was a ’73 Buick Century, as it really threw the mud. But the most effective was an ’81 Ford Escort. Too underpowered to throw mud, it excelled at creeping over soft ground. It was impressive how far we got in that thing.
Funny thing is one of the ones I built was a 73 Century Luxus. Out back I had 10-15 truck tires in the good old Chevron tread pattern. With those tires, the air shocks at max pressure, and the way the lower body sides were made it could really sling the mud.
My old 4-dr 72 Chevelle ended up as what we called “stripper cut” cars – lots of abandoned open strip mines in the eastern Ohio/western PA/northern WV tri-state area in the 70s/80s – so find a rusted out junker – like my Chevy, complete with 2bbl wheezer of a 307 – chop off everything that didn’t make it go, add the biggest, chunkyest used tires you could find and run the strip cuts till it blew up or broke. The less scrupulous pried of the VIN and pushed what was left into the water collected at the bottom – the more frugal flat towed it to the scrap yard for the couple of bucks they’d pay out. Great fun for very little money – I think I sold my Chevy for $150.00 to a buddy of my younger brother…
It used to be that a mild version of this was available from the factory in Australia, typically called “country pack” or similar, with raised suspension, sump guard etc available. The ultimate version was the Falcon RTV ute, approx 3″ higher than standard.
A photo
What’s the difference between this and a donk besides the tires?
Donk = Gang banger
Battlecar = Prepper
“We’re not so different, you and I”
Gee, does that mean that the 1975(?) and later MGB (the rubber bumper model) was the originator of this trend?
British Leyland finally does something cool?