Richard Bosselman

Heaps of attention from thousands streaming past the show stand was gratifying enough.

What really left them dumbstruck was the social media return; globally, the YouTube video achieved one million viewers from 124 countries.

The reception given its Huntaway show truck, built for the 2017 National Fieldays at Mystery Creek but seen by the world, got Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand thinking.

Ben recalls that relaxed afternoon, a few months on, out on MMNZ chief operating officer Dan’s boat, mulling the what ifs, beer in hand. Nathan, his mate from kindergarten days, also got involved. A few days later, Campbell and

Reece were roped in. They had a plan.

So the ‘‘one’’ has sired 20 near doppelgangers, again created around a 2.4-litre Triton double cab turbo diesel automatic ute, this time not the top-line VXR but the next-rungdown GLX-R.

You’re probably thinking, ‘‘So what? Most brands have glam trucks. What’s so different?’’

Just this.

Your Ranger Raptor and the like are factory efforts. Mitsubishi Japan hasn’t that ability. Huntaway has head office sanction yet it’s NZ gumboot engineering. Not back room; back yard. No engineers, designers, CAD computers. Just gut instinct, rule of thumb and eyeometers.

The end result, revealed at MMNZ’s Todd Park head office – once hub of a car-building enterprise covering 33 hectares that, between 1973 and 1994, placed 22,000 cars a year onto our roads – immediately impresses.

Finish and design-wise, the transformation of a $40k donor into a $69,990 special has a million-dollar air to it.

The signature custom wheel guards, inspired by the Pajero Evolution’s, are an obvious artwork. So too the metal hard lid and rail kit, rear protection bar, bull bar and steel bash guard. It impresses that these and after-market accessories (18-inch wheels, 35-inch tyres, suspension, 50mm lift kit, LED running lights) are all sourced locally. It gobsmacks that the project was limited to local workshops.

A drive replicating the route the truck follows under build – start at Todd Park, off to Custom Body Shop in Upper Hutt, run by Ben Martin, where the original arches and so on are removed and replacements fitted and painted, back to Todd Park (suspension, wheels, bumpers, guards, snorkel added) – renders a transformation that comprises several weeks’ work into a threehour run, including time for off-road play.

Huntaway drives well.

Sure, the tyres elevate road din, but conversation with Thomas and Campbell Grant, the young marketing manager who with product planner Reece Congdon was tasked with ‘‘selling’’ the project to the dealer network (they’re all on board), is possible. There’s some wheel shimmy at open road speed, but the ride is settled and though the 80mm increase in overall height makes it feel more Kenworth-like now, the handling isn’t too monstertruck.

The enhanced clearance and compliance and the tyres’ massive bite makes tackling rutted, rain-slick tracks on a cloud-shrouded farm above Paramata Haywards Rd a cinch. The 135kW/437Nm powertrain hasn’t the gusto of some rivals and seems to work a bit harder in this application in low range, reinforcing why it’s auto only.

The speedo needle sitting on 10kmh at rest betrays a local remedy for the radical rolling radius change’s impact on accuracy, enforced once Nathan – that’s Nathan Thomas, MMNZ technical services advisor – realised his call to Japan for a pro-recalibration was being lost in translation. So, this

No.8 wire solution.

Whereas the original Huntaway got a Terminator interior, costcapping consideration has left the successor’s cabin standard. Those work-first plastics and grey-on-grey colours don’t excite.

At least it picks a new touchscreen audio with Apple Carplay/ Android Auto and Bluetooth and gets climate control air, but a complete refresh, along with inclusion of the latest Dynamic Shield frontage, is demanded of next year’s mid-life facelift.

What sells Huntaway is more than just its extrovert look; there’s genuine robustness. Running his hand over the front guard and reflecting on how challenging it was to get the shaping perfect, Martin enforces ‘‘everything we put on is as tough as the steel we took off.’’

Warranty cover for three years, rather than the usual 10 (but still to 160,000km), reflects more about expectation of where and how it will be used. The original Huntaway, by the by, is employed as a regular farm hack on a Northland farm and has proven resistant to that rigour.

Will it sell? Some already have. Will it make money? Dan – Daniel Cook, Huntaway’s champion and MMNZ chief operating officer – doubts it. ‘‘We should cover our costs.’’

No regrets. ‘‘It’s still quite a cheap marketing exercise,’’ since brand impact was seismic. ‘‘It was probably the single biggest thing, outside of our PHEV product introduction, over the last 20 years."