Toyota SA’s motorsport team lets its hair down
IDOUBT if Toyota South Africa’s internal motorsport division stands around waiting for things to do between preparing (and repairing) its fleet of offroad and rally racers, but with the millionth (yes, millionth) Hilux model sold this July, the team found enough time to build a celebratory one-off bakkie that has Venter trailers cowering in fear of having their necks ripped off.
But before I get into what makes this crazy project tick, let me re-iterate that Toyota South Africa has sold one million Hiluxes since the first in 1969. One million, inside South African borders. If we count the others which have been built locally and shipped overseas, we might have reason to build a second Rex.
What’s a Rex, you ask. Rex is the short nickname given to this special bakkie by TSA staffers, which officially goes by the name ‘Toyota Hilux Racing Experience’. It entered Toyota Motorsport’s workshop as an everyday 3.0 D-4D doublecab, but rolled out a gravel-chucking monster with the eight-piston heart of a Lexus IS-F. The project was overseen by Motorsport boss Glynn Hall, a man who’s had some practice with cramming 5-litre V8s into Hilux bodies, as it’s a very similar setup to the numerous race bakkies he’s built to compete in the Dakar Rally.
For the Rex, however, his brief was to incorporate only enough gofast goodies as necessary to make the V8 conversion work – and work safely. A special oil sump was made to make space for the front differential. Hall added a slightly quicker steering rack, changed diff ratios, made an adaptor plate to mate the Lexus engine to the standard D-4D five-speed manual gearbox, and coupled the two with a twin-plate AP Racing clutch. This Hilux rides on fully adjustable racing shocks and sits 50mm lower than a standard model on 18” wheels. Brakes discs are up-sized to 350mm and gripped by billet four-pot callipers.
With 335kW and 600Nm, the Rex’s engine is a little more powerful than in standard IS-F trim thanks to a Dakar-spec intake system, and because the Dakar racers are required to run restrictor plates its output is comparable to what Giniel de Villiers had at his disposal on his way to second place overall at the world’s toughest race earlier this year.
Inside, the front seats have been replaced with proper racing buckets, and where the standard instrument cluster was is now an Aim digital display with shift lights just like you’ll find in many full-on racing cars. The stock dashboard remains and it even has airconditioning.
This is a one-off bakkie. So no, you can’t buy one. And yes, I know your uncle transplanted a Supra twin-turbo engine into his old pickup with only a hacksaw and an arc welder. But remember, this one was crafted by a guy who gets phone calls from famous international racing teams to build their bakkies. He knows what it takes to perform a conversion and make it last over two weeks and 9 000km of Dakar torture.
But Rex doesn’t have a towbar, so Venter trailers are safe – for now!