From tiny Icon mighty offroaders go

Los Angeles is large in so many ways. A mass equal to the entire population of Australia, calls SoCal home, and it seems everyone is wheeling somewhere at once in an enormous daily migration. The car reigns king in this asphalt test of Darwinism, where the fittest survive driving something with teeth and toughness in the land of large.

Hummer? That’s not a knife... Jonathan Ward builds a KNIFE!

Part artist, part engineer, Ward’s Icon FJ Cruisers and Broncos have more hardcore amusements than Disneyland – with the elegant brutality of a Quentin Tarantino dialogue. His workshop in the northern suburbs of LA is near enough to Hollywood to feel its influence and be visited by a celebrity whose refined Bentley lacks testosterone. Most of his clients though are real people who have extraordinary wealth and no interest in mundane European/Japanese luxury.

Ward’s outfit, wonderfully named, Icon, offers the perfect counter-culture solution.

Ward designs and builds unique vehicles under the badge. He generally begins with a mid-1960s to mid-1970s FJ Series LandCruiser or Ford Bronco and then tosses most of factory bits in the bin.

The era is important because under California’s clean air laws, a 4WD vehicle from back then doesn’t require emission testing. Plus, Ward or anyone else can swap engines, transmission and basically reengineer a vehicle from that era without legal interference.

If the modified, reconstructed vehicle passes California regs, it can be registered in any one of the other 49 states. Alas the same doesn’t apply Down Under.

“I get enquiries and have sold vehicles around the world – except to Australia,” Ward told motoring.com.au.

“What’s the deal with Australia?”

It’s a legitimate question. Early Toyota FJs and Broncos were sold in Australia. You know them, and you still see them rusting in paddocks, but it seems the Aussie homologation regs take a dislike to Icon re-engineering just about everything.

Toyota Australia may also object to Icon importing a few hand-made short-wheelbase FJ40s or the long-wheelbase FJ43. But, according to Ward, the FJ40, FJ43 and FJ45 are registered trademarks of his company.

“Toyota never considered trademark registering the FJ series,” said Ward.

“So I did.”

The only Aussie driving an Icon – an FJ45 pickup - is Marc Newson who runs around in one on his property in Greece.

“We painted Marc’s FJ a unique orange – his own Pantone orange,” said Ward who describes Marc as a friend and advisor on things design.

Mickey Drexler, CEO of fashion brand J Crew and a director at Apple, also provides advice on branding and financial issues.

Icon exteriors remain recognisably FJ-ish or Bronco but the result is dynamically better, far more durable and with their modern V8 engines easily top 160km/h – whereas hitting a 100km/h in a standard FJ or Bronco required a tailwind and a cliff.

Ward’s Icon creations take the rough old 4WD down a different track to blend function with indestructability and still provide impressive comfort. Losing the leaf springs and adding Fox coil-spring dampers does a lot for ride quality.

Icon’s clients are not short of a quid and are richly patient. Icon will handcraft 10 to 20 FJs or Broncos this year; the buyer will have paid a $US40,000 deposit and waited for at least 24 months before getting the keys... And recovering from a final build cost far north of $100,000.

Their finished Icon FJ sitting in the drive is an industrial work of art, borrowing parts from appliances such as an industrial refrigerator for windscreen latches to aluminium aircon vents from a luxury aircraft.

An Icon FJ body is fabricated from four-millimetre 5052 aluminium by a company that mainly builds pontoons for houseboats. The exterior skin is alloy; the bones are provided by Art Morrison by way of a 100 x fifty millimetre rectangular mild steel chassis.

From there, the FJ takes a Chevy aluminium LS 5.3-litre or 5.7-litre 313kW V8 with fuel injection and GM ECU. The V8 links to a choice of five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic transmission shift controlled by the ECU.

The Icon Bronco is different because, as Ward claims, Ford insisted on being involved and keeping the Bronco name alive (perhaps as a future model). Indeed, the Blue Oval is the first major manufacturer to recognise Icon with technical support and components.

GM and Chrysler followed as did a string of premium brands such as Fox shocks, ARB diff locks and Warn winches.

The Bronco gets Ford’s new 307kW DOHC 5.0-litre Coyote V8 from the latest Mustang and a five-speed manual transmission.

The tall and wide V8 sits well in the enlarged Bronco engine bay.

“We take the engineering as far as we can,” said Ward, acknowledging that advances in technology in CNC mills, design software and engine management computers allow him to make considerable improvement to these old classic 4WDs.

“We couldn’t have done this 10 years ago.”

Icon uses the original Bronco body panels if saveable; otherwise, Ford offers reproduction panels under licence.

“We powdercoat the aluminium FJ body, but we have to use the traditional painting process on the Broncos because the original steel body panels will warp during the heat cure of powder coating,” he mentions while describing the dull, industrial texture of the FJ colour coat in comparison to the glossy Broncos.

Nothing escapes Ward’s obsession for detail and passion for CNC milling. The original Bronco grill is light-weight pressed metal; the replacement Icon Bronco grill starts as a 44kg slab of aluminium and is milled to a 10.5kg finished piece.

Each exterior door handle is milled from a block of stainless steel. Extreme and extremely cool...

With the Icon brand, Ward has created a niche blending traditional hot rodding techniques with 4WDs and high performance. An Icon is a helluva tool, that you can drive every day, anywhere.

And beyond the 4WDs, there’s another, more sinister, side to Icon.

Ward is a self-taught product designer who plays constantly with materials, textures and a black book of industry contacts to bring ideas from his brain to the workshop. His office is full of art deco, chrome plated and American-made steel stuff.

This design interest plays out in a consistent theme he labels, Derelict and Reformers.

Think Boyd Coddington or Chip Foose and that’s the wrong idea. Derelict and Reformers are all about aged, peeled paint and patina on the outside and modern performance, rack and pinion, air-conditioning, big sound system and bigger brakes on the inside.

The look is pure kerbside Cuba. The performance is AMG or BMW M5. The price too is about equal to the muscular Euros.

Search online at Jay Leno’s Garage and you’ll find YouTube footage of Ward’s personal ’52 Desoto wagon with big-tooth grille, crazed paint, and a 317kW 6.1-litre V8 and running gear from a current Dodge Charger SRT8.

The car is Ward’s personal daily driver and looks like something just pulled out of a chicken shed. That’s the idea, bird shit and all to disguise its considerable performance.

For Ward the thrill is creating a car with stealth custom touches and the challenge of bringing CNC milling, one-off components and comfort to something most people would sell for scrap.

Then look closely and you’ll see the brilliant detail and purposeful touches that define a Derelict as a custom. While he’s built only a handful of Derelicts, word of Ward’s creations has reached across the Atlantic.

Someone very influential within Daimler-Benz wants a Derelict car custom built and contacted Ward, who then found a fairly solid early-1950s Mercedes 300 Adenauer limousine that’s waiting in Icon’s showroom.

A wall away in the workshop under a tarp is a 373kW 5.5-litre bi-turbo AMG V8 freighted direct from Germany. Ward is now awaiting approval and the financial support that will merge modern AMG power with Mercedes heritage.

You get the idea? So take it one mental step further and envisage the expression on the face of a naive Porsche, Ferrari or Lambo owner. Is there a better reason to drive a Derelict?

Well, yes. You never worry about dents and dings; you can park it anywhere; even the police agree it could never go that fast, and other drivers give you space. It’s your big secret; and dogs don’t even bother out of sympathy.

As the Icon brand grows and expands into a diverse range of markets Ward has plans to increase annual production from 12 to 20 vehicles to as many as 30 by 2015 and reduce the order lead time to 12 months.

Inside his fertile imagination he’s designing three new concepts: a 50s era Dodge Power Wagon crew cab, a VW Bus and a Volvo P1800 ES wagon.

Nothing predictable about Icon; just don’t judge the performance of a Derelict by its coat of paint.

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