This Turbo 1JZ Toyota Crown Wagon Was Turned Into a Hearse

The Toyota 1JZ Engine


Largely a part of the MK.IV Supra’s lore, the JZ engine had become the darling of the aftermarket scene. But in its normal guise, it’s a smooth, refined engine that powered a lot of Toyota’s rear-drive midsize sedans and the Soarer, better known as the first Lexus SC everywhere else.

The JZ family is primarily split into two, namely the 2.5-liter 1JZ, and 3.0-liter 2JZ. The non-turbo versions were pretty good, and it also helped that these were hugely reliable powertrains. As for the turbos, well, these have become legendary. The 2JZ-FTE gets all the limelight, but the 1JZ-GTE was a stout engine, too.



Toyota

Cool Applications


For those familiar with the ’90s JDM scene, they’ll know that it powered a couple of great sports sedans. There’s the Toyota Chaser, Cresta, and Mark II, as well as the Crown Athlete. If it was a mid-sized Toyota with rear-wheel drive, you can count on it being available with the boosted 1JZ.

This engine also powered several Japan-only models that most of us would typically know as a Lexus. The Toyota Soarer was the Japanese-market Lexus SC, but came with that engine mated to a manual. It was even used in two wagons, namely the Mark II Blit and Crown Estate Athlete V, bringing us neatly into the next bit.



Toyota

Not Where You’d Usually Find it


What customers do with their cars isn’t up for Toyota to decide, so from time to time, you get the odd 1JZ turbo-powered car. Such is the case for this particular Crown Athlete V wagon spotted by The Drive. It’s for sale on Facebook Marketplace at the time of writing, and it could be yours for about $15,000 if you don’t mind the aftermarket conversion.

That conversion is a hearse, and it’s not every day you’d find a hearse with a hot motor. The 1JZ-FTE made 276 hp on paper, but everyone knows that it was intentionally underrated as part of a gentleman’s agreement among Japanese automakers right up until the mid-2000s. We don’t know the history of why this Crown Estate Athlete was chosen to be a hearse, given that standard Crown Estates would do the same task just fine. Express service, perhaps?

Either way, it’s an amusing Marketplace find, and provided you have extra cash to burn on a 25-year-old hearse, there’s quite a lot of potential in these. Harold and Maude types will appreciate it, but the lure of that turbocharged 1JZ is making us want to build a drift hearse. The only thing that needs doing is a manual swap, and you’re good to go. Of course, that’s just us thinking out loud, but we’re more than open to other suggestions.



Dylan Cain/Facebook Marketplace

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