Toyota's Tacozilla Camper Pays Tribute To The Glorious Days
by AutoExpert | 4 November, 2021
With a focus on off-roading and overlanding, Toyota is making an impression at this year's SEMA show. However, the Tacozilla is our favorite new product of the year. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Toyota collaborated with Chinook to build campers for the Toyota Pickup.
Tacozilla, like past Toyota SEMA projects, is a fully functional overlanding truck that can be driven practically anywhere. Designed and developed by Marty Schwerter and his team at Toyota Motorsports Garage, the Tacozilla was inspired by the idea of creating a vehicle that was both stylish and practical.
The assignment wasn't easy, but Toyota Motorsports Garage came up with a simple camper frame that aesthetically connects to the Tacoma lines while also maximizing internal capacity. The Tacozilla's dimensions aren't much broader than the original Tacoma since the camper was created expressly for it, making it simpler to navigate narrow paths.
The camper contains a full kitchen with a refrigerator, stove, and sink, as well as a bathroom with a hot-water shower and quality sauna-style wooden floors. Toyota hasn't stated how many people can sleep in the Tacozilla, but based on the pictures, two people should be able to sleep peacefully on the upper level.
There were numerous problems in designing the Tacozilla, but the Motorsports Garage crew was able to incorporate a passthrough from the cab into the camper, as well as a gasoline tank filler that was fully isolated from the camper to guarantee that fuel smells did not enter the room.
Tacozilla is powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 engine with 278 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque, paired with a six-speed manual transmission. The TRD suspension was lifted two inches to give it more skilled off-road, and the Tacozilla will have no trouble overlanding with the General Tire Grabber X3 285/70/17 tires.
The paint job was done by Complete Customs in McKinney, Texas, who used a white base color with retro yellow, orange, and golden highlights as a nod to the original Toyota Pickups.
