The option package is cool, and the truck is pretty well-equipped, but my favourite part is the stripe package. Right off a monster or Baja truck back in the day.
The Macho Power Wagon, Warlock, Little Red Express, Jean Machine and Palomino were all great looks in the 1970s. I once saw a Chevy Luv Mikado limping through the Safeway parking lot in Idaho. It was so rusty that you could see the window regulators through the door skins, so I don’t think there’s any chance that it could be a clone. Even my old C10 had the Highlander package, featuring tacky wood grain lower exterior trim and an even tackier White and orange plaid interior with heavy scrollwork vinyl. Less than a year ago, I spotted an old Bronco with the sundown stripe package, so wild that I think it could be spotted from space. A lot of these packages were simply appearance add-ons, without a lot of performance gain. This little Toyota, though. It could walk the walk and talk the talk.
At one point, a Toyota 4x4 was a pretty cool unit for someone to have fun with. I’m almost too young to remember that, but it was a decent fad. I never got into it, as GM had their own rusty little pickup that I found easier to understand, although I will be the first to admit that it is inferior in many ways. The Toyota was affordable, had a decent aftermarket, and was small enough for the beach or the city. In 1978, Toyota offered a package on their SR-5 pickup that they called “Wolverine,” a package so complete that you couldn’t just go into any dealership and order one, as Toyota only sold them to specific dealers. As is the case almost all of the time, special order means a special (expensive) price. With the everyday low sticker price of a little over five grand for a brand new 1978 Toyota pickup, the Wolverine package tacked on just shy of an additional four grand, nearly doubling it. Specialized Automotive Engineering of Van Nuys, California and Conversions Unlimited of Sunnyvale, California did every Wolverine upgrade before they were shipped out to dealers in the west, while Tolsdorf Industries of Putman, Connecticut handled the dealers in the east. On the exterior, there was a special California step side bed, tubular rear bumper, front grill guard, stripes, and decals. Most I’ve seen also have a roll bar and some sort of arrangement of KC lights, either up top or out front, though that was likely dealer-installed. Underneath is where the real magic is, with SAE locking front hubs, semi-elliptical front springs, and a Spicer 30 front axle. Under the hood was your typical 2.2L four-cylinder engine with a special aluminum oil pan, and it was backed by a five-speed manual and Dana 20 two-speed transfer case. The steering box was relocated to a point ahead of the front axle, and everything was buttoned up underneath with custom skid plates. Overall, a lot of modifications, but a lot of additional expense, hence why they’re so uncommon. Nowadays, we have trucks like the Ford Raptor, a truck that I literally just saw today. It looked great sitting there in red, with those black-spattered graphics that are fairly common. I turned my head, but not as hard as I would have if were an older, tackier 4x4 like this.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
