You wanna talk about a Flagship model?? If ever there was one, Toyota’s long wheelbase Century was it! The elite of the elite. These were hand-built… by a select few of the best Toyota employees. And they were made to carry very important people to very important places lol.
The Toyota Century consists of only 1-generation, spanned 30 years (from 1967 to 1997).
There were updates to engine/suspension/drivetrain & facelifts along the way, but the core chassis remained the same.
Only 430 of the ‘long-wheelbase’ Centurys were made over the last seven years of production (from 1991-1997).
And they were made exclusively for the Japanese market – nowhere else. Similar to the Ferrari F40, you really had to be somebody to even be able to buy one. The long-wheelbase variant had fiber-optic lighting, reclining + massaging rear seats, fold-out foot rests, slide-out tables & workstations, a cooler, an ice maker, VHS/TV, and remote-controlled climate control. And this LWB Century’s owner, John Ludwick Jr, even managed to source a super-rare OEM Toyota 12v face-shaver from Japan!
The Toyota Century’s engine was coded as a 5VEU – a 4.0-liter all-aluminum hemi (yes hemi) V8.
John’s dad, an enthusiast & long-time fabricator, built a custom exhaust for the ultra-unique Toyota V8 engine. Overall, this LWB Century is a slow work in progress, and a test in patience & careful planning. John wants to cut carefully here. With a vehicle this rare & elegant & hand-built, John wants to accentuate, not desecrate, the long-wheelbase Century. There was a good bit of clever custom work in getting the car to lay out… without cutting it too much in the wrong places. BagRiders has been the suspension supplier for the project, and John built a custom air suspension with AirLift performance bags & AirLift’s 3H management.
To read the full article on this LWB Toyota Century…
Grab a copy of Issue 57 of S3 Magazine. You can get a single copy here (make sure to click Issue 57). Or you can subscribe to the magazine (better deal), and get a free t-shirt in the process + 2 years of the print mag AND you still get this issue immediately sent in the mail… along with the brand new Issue 58. *Normally we would just post the entire article here, but in this case, the print feature of this car was intwined with John’s previous E23 BMW… and it’s just doesn’t translate to digital without getting messy.
Catch up with John Ludwick & his cars…
And watch the past episodes of the cross-country journey in this LWB Toyota Century on his Youtube channel: Ludwick’s Garage / The Governors Club (youtube.com/johnludwick).
John Ludwick would also like to thank BagRiders, and his father John Sr. for always getting involved with these projects… and the internet for making it possible to find all these weird/rare cars & parts.
Text by Wooley Photos by Keiron Berndt
