Is this Toyota Hilux the fastest double-cab bakkie in Africa?
Let’s start with 327kW/545Nm, 0-100 km/h in 7.1sec and 227km/h up on the Reef – that, for foreign readers, is at an altitude of about1500m.
It’s from South Africa’s eighth-generation Hilux range, a four-litre V6 that claims to be the first to be supercharged anywhere is Africa- though its not the first Big Six Toyota to be tuned by RGMotorsport.
SIX SECONDS FROM 60-100KM/H
The Strydom Park, Randburg, business has installed a similar forced induction package on way more than 100 of these engines; V6 FJ Cruisers, Prados, Fortuners, Land Cruisers and Hiluxes have all been through the workshop.
Watch the hot Hilux in action!
While the acceleration is impressive, the stand-out number according to the tuner is the flexibility. Making full use of the kick-down of the six-speed auto, it will accelerate from 80-160km/h in 12.2sec 10sec faster than the standard 4×2 bakkie.
MORE CARMAN’S CORNER HILUX FEATURES
Fortuner: Seven-seat Hilux takes luxury off-road
Fresh chapter in the Legend of the Hilux
Toyota pours R6.1bn into local production and jobs
Toyota scores top in 2016 Rust de Winter
The showroom version will go from 60-120km/h in 9.6sec – the ‘charged unit does it in six, all figures, the tuner says, verified by track coaching and data analysis people Stigworx using VBOX data-logging equipment.
GOOD NEWS FOR CARAVAN HAULERS
Rob Green, founder of RGMotorsport, told The Corner in a media release: “Many of our Supercharged customers use their vehicle for towing. When you overtake with a 1400kg caravan hooked up you end up spending plenty of time and distance on the wrong side of the road.
“That’s when you’re in the most danger but with an RGM Supercharged conversion that period is hugely reduced, safety dramatically improved. With the huge torque reserve, the engine copes easily with the gaps between the gear ratios and acceleration is unrelenting.
“There’s no drop in momentum between third and fourth gears, apparent with the standard bakkie.”
DIFFERENT COLD-AIR INTAKE
While they’ve Supercharged many V6s (including one which has covered more than a half-million trouble-free km), Green explains, this particular recipe has a slightly different mix to that of the outgoing, ‘Vigo’ generation Hilux.
“For example,” he explained, “the cold-air intake is substantially different; other components – such as the power steering and aircon plumbing have been repackaged – and the same attention to detail is apparent when you open the bonnet.
“It looks like it’s just left Toyota’s Durban plant.”
…AND SOME EXPLANATION
The super-Hilux is a single variable valve-timing version of the V6 but in Supercharged form makes 152kW more than standard, with torque boosted from 376 to 545Nm. Intake temperatures are kept low (key to reliability and power) with a standalone radiator which reduces the temperature of the compressed air from the Vortech centrifugal supercharger before it enters the intake manifold.
That’s why, Green explains, even with modest half-bar boost, the compression ratio of the engine can be left unchanged. The V2 blower also has its own lubrication system, reducing maintenance and simplifying the installation.
Each conversion is optimised on RGMotorsport’s al-wheel-drive dynamometer to get the Unichip piggyback ECU perfectly mapped for the engine with which it is partnered before being unleashed.
A Supercharged conversion starts at R105 000 for a Hilux or Fortuner and, like all RGM conversions, comes with a minimum six month or 20 000km warranty.
Carman's Corner 