MEMBER PROFILE
JOEL MCHALE IS NOT KIDDING AROUND
Joel McHale’s feet dangle above his head and out the driver’s side door. He is an Emmy-nominated actor and world-famous comedian, and we are gathered at the comfortable Studio City home that success has afforded him. Yet it is easy to see a 6’4” boy playing with his toy truck, though in this case that would be a $200,000+ ICON FJ43 truck, and it is no joke.
Joel custom ordered— as all ICON vehicles must be— his FJ43 from the Los Angeles based shop about four years ago, where founder Jonathan Ward and his team reincarnated a 1970 Toyota Land Cruiser with a completely modern body, interior, electric, suspension and steering. The engine is also new: a GM-sourced 430 hp 6.2 liter V8, which Joel confirms “hauls ass.”
The car has an undeniable presence in person, and it elicits a strange sense of familiarity: the vintage shape is so recognizable, but with something like 20 examples made per year, it’s unlikely you have ever encountered an FJ configured in this way. Certainly, the ICON makes so many other six-figure sport-utility-vehicles seem pedestrian.
“I am not smart enough to maintain one of those antiques,” Joel says of the original 1960s—1970s Land Cruisers, “I would break it.” To him, the ICON is special because it’s essentially a brand new car built from scratch, with no fear of getting stranded on the side of the road. “I’m pretty sure you could shoot a missile at it,” he says, “and I don’t think it would stop.”
Joel’s other dream car is parked alongside the ICON. “It was the first car I really went crazy on,” he says in the direction of his GT Silver 2014 Porsche 991 911 Turbo S. Crazy, but not impulsive: “I drove every supercar in that range,” he recalls of the shopping experience, but nothing compared to the 911. “To this day I have never driven anything like it,” he says, “It’s like putting on a glove full of Vaseline.”
Joel reluctantly admits he once got the Porsche to 170 mph on a highway near Death Valley, an experience he says was not smart but really fun. “I am not the guy who wakes up at 4:30 and goes on Angeles Crest Highway,” he says to put into perspective his more typical relationship with driving, though he has a history of seeking out fast rides, from an early Volvo 850R wagon to a beloved series of Subaru STIs.
The father of two jokes that a pretty serious midlife crisis may be shaping his current car collection, with more notable models on the way, but he is serious when he says, “It’s a dream come true, and I can’t believe it’s mine.”
