Vw amarok dc 3,0 V6 tdi 4Motion extreme at

THIS is not a bakkie. What you’re really looking at is a stealth bomber. I know that’s hard to believe given the attention-grabbing metallic paint job, 20-inch alloys and that flashy colour-coded sports bar, but trust me – and a number of hot hatch-owning robot racers – it most certainly is.

Over the last month, I’ve indulged in guilty pleasures at Cape Town’s traffic lights when fortuitously finding myself at the front of the queue alongside a low-seated youngster peering over the dashboard of his dropped-suspension hatch. The rear-view mirror-framed look on their wide-eyed and fast-receding faces never failed to illicit a hearty chuckle as I could see the words “what the…?!” beginning to form. Old ballies 1; youngsters 0.

That’s what 180 kw and 580 N.m on overboost, all-wheel drive and the element of surprise will do. Of course, as fun as it is, this isn’t what the Amarok was really designed for and I have also been allowing it some more traditional bakkie pursuits. One of these was a family trip to the Cederberg. With the load bay jam-packed with assorted camping kit, bicycles on the Thule towbar-mounted rack and family ensconced in the Amarok’s Nappa-leathered interior, we set off up the N7 to Piketberg before hooking a right towards the mountains and up Dasklip Pass.

Plenty of gravel roads and a rocky descent into Beaverlac campsite also meant the first real test of the bakkie’s fully laden performance off-road and, as class-leading as its ride quality is on tar, it’s equally impressive across corrugated gravel.

I can already tell the Amarok’s ability to ferry us and our inventory of equipment in comfort is going to turn camping newbies into experienced adventurers.