FJ Bruisers

It’s that time of year again. The FJ Bruiser’s are gearing up for the signature event of the year. Spring Mudfing. Come and join the FJ Bruisers in George Washington National Forest, Memorial Day weekend. We will be running trails, camping, and just having a great time. In addition to having fun we will be holding seminars and classes to promote safe and responsible off-roading techniques.

We hope to have the biggest turn out yet for this event. Registration is free, so register now to reserve your spot. For more information check out our Mudfling Section on the website often, as updates will come quickly. Also make sure to check out the forum for up to the minute information.

Just launched is the FJ Bruiser’s Mudfling Store to get your Mudfling event wear.

To the Rescue with the Japanese Jeep

“The reason our company is here is the Land Cruiser.”
-Toyota Motor Sales President and COO Jim Press

World War II was over. Japan was suffering under a double-edged sword. The country was wracked by inflation and the rationing of available goods and services. What remained of the homeland industrial base struggled to achieve even a tenth of its prewar production levels.

“Starting from Zero”—that’s what Toyota Motor Corporation titles this period in its official corporate history.

From a contemporary perspective, it’s hard to imagine that the now mighty Toyota Motor Corporation had such modest prewar production numbers.

Founded in Japan in 1936 on the dream of creating domestically-designed and engineered passenger cars, Toyota at first had little choice but to focus on buses and trucks, not cars, for moving the nation’s people and their goods. Of the more than 16,000 vehicles the company built in 1943, little more than 200 were passenger cars.

A year later, that number dropped to a few dozen.

Although Japanese automakers were allowed to start building vehicles shortly after World War II ended
in September 1945, they were on their own in finding the needed raw materials. Even then they were restricted to producing trucks for the reconstruction effort. Between 1945 and 1947, Toyota built no cars at all, and it wasn’t until 1953 that the company returned to its meager prewar passenger car production levels.

But things started to change dramatically for Toyota in the summer of 1950, when the Cold War turned hot. The Peoples Republic of (North) Korea—supported by its Communist allies from China and the Soviet Union—invaded the Republic of (South) Korea. The ensuing battle would be supported by the presence of some 400,000 American military personnel. Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, April 19th, the FJ Bruisers will be travelling to Green Ridge State Forest for the annual tree planting.  Green Ridge State Forest is a mixed use area in western Maryland just beyond Hagerstown.  It has a number of diferent activities.  Including an ATV trail, firing range, and a large number of OHV trails.  Each year the FJ Bruisers participate a reforesting project in conjunction with the Maryland Deparment of Natural Resources.  This is a family friendly event for all with camping the night prior.  This is a great opportunity to meet with fellow Bruisers and give back to the community at the same time.

After hearing in the news constantly that it is time for change, we have said “Yes we can!”  So we are launching a completely new look to our web site.  This has been an undertaking a long time coming.  Richard Larusso championed the cause with his history of web programming and knowing the right guys to get to help.  After the jump start by Rich we have taken over to finish the job with member driven content that we hope you all will enjoy.  Come back frequently to see what else is new as the new site continues to mature and change.