Toyota Hilux Pickup Rips With 950 Horsepower LS Swap: Track Time Tuesday
With a junkyard motor and not much else, this impressive 1989 Toyota Hilux runs low 10s with an eye toward the 9s.
Most automotive enthusiasts are well aware of the Toyota Hilux, the Japanese automaker’s notoriously unkillable pickup that is sold in other parts of the world. The Hilux quickly gained fame around the world after its many appearances on the original Top Gear, in which the crew tried everything they could to kill the compact pickup, with little success. However, while the Toyota Hilux is mostly known for its staggering reliability and off-road capability, this 1989 example owned and built by Ken Glosser is now a fearsome drag racer, thanks to an LS swap.
The legendary Larry Chen himself caught up with Glosser at LS Fest to get a closer look at this killer Toyota Hilux pickup, which was originally obtained by Glosser when he was in high school as a hand-me-down from his father. Glosser proceeded to drive the pickup until it hit 320,000 miles on the odometer, which time he decided that it needed a new engine. Instead of sticking with a Toyota powerplant, he quickly eyeballed an LS swap.
That came in the form of a 5.3-liter V8 sourced from a wrecked Chevy Tahoe, or the old junkyard special, as we like to call it. Amazingly, the powerplant has a stock bottom end, stock head porting, and stock valves, but has been fitted with a BTR Stage 2 cam and a large turbo pushing 18 pounds of boost into the LS. That’s good enough to give this little pickup a whopping 950 horsepower at the wheels, which is staggering, indeed.
In fact, Glosser admits that his creation is “scary” and that he’s “terrified to drive this truck,” though he does quite well out on the track. In fact, he managed to run a 10.3-second quarter-mile at 132 mph in this video, which is impressive indeed. Particularly when we consider that this truck is mostly stock with steel body panels, save for the obvious changes like the drivetrain and some other safety gear, as well as a 9-inch Ford rear end with 3.70 gears.
Regardless, Glosser isn’t done with his cool build yet, and plans on feeding it enough boost to get down into the nines in the near future. Given how impressive this truck is already, we wouldn’t be surprised one bit to see that happen, either.
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