Numbers are important here, because we’re still finding the words necessary to describe the Toyota Land Speed Cruiser, and we need space to think. The numbers are thus: 2,000bhp and 220mph (355kph), all from, yes, a modified Land Cruiser. Welcome, everyone, to one of the fastest cars in the world.

It is a SEMA special, built for the annual US tuning show and packing the sort of top speed only accessible via something exotic, and starting with the words ‘McLaren’, ‘Bugatti’ or ‘Koenigsegg’.

How has this not-so-little Toyota steamrollered into such esteemed company? Via – using the company’s lexicon – “a volleyball-sized Garrett turbocharger” on each bank of the Land Cruiser’s 5.7-litre V8. It sucks in great swathes of air thanks to specially designed inlets in the bonnet, and that 2,000bhp – yes, two thousand horsepower – V8 is linked to an ATI automatic gearbox. Pity the ATI automatic gearbox.

“From the outside,” explains Toyota motorsports tech centre manager Chuck Wade, “the Land Speed Cruiser appears quite normal, quite subtle. This is what makes it so special. Every single system and component has been touched. The trick is getting the body back onto the heavily modified frame”.

Barring the lowered stance, the roll cage, the aero inlets in the body and a small lip spoiler, it does indeed look like a slightly hotted up Land Cruiser. All the better to scare those exotic supercars with then, no?

“I love the challenge of taking a vehicle and making it stronger, faster,” said Wade. “Making something beyond outrageous keeps me coming back for more.”

It’s just one of 30 special cars built by Toyota for the SEMA show – as well as a rather beautiful 2000 GT – and we’ll have a round-up gallery of some of the finest later today.