Toyota Hilux Has 6.2-liter V8 AMG Power with Manual Goodness!
In terms of crazy AMGs builds, this M156 powered Toyota Hilux takes out-of-the-box thinking to the max.
South Africa is taking AMG builds to an all new level. Speed and Sound Magazine has found this build from Quentin Boylan, who’s taken an M156 V8 and put it in a Toyota Hilux. Toyota’s Hilux truck/ute is quite a popular vehicle in South Africa, but isn’t sold here stateside. We also don’t have many details on the build from this short video. But what we do see has us amazed.
South Africa’s best performing Hilux from this generation had only 235 horsepower from a 4.0 V6, so swapping out that motor for a V8 just about doubles the power. But what we are more interested in is how it sends its power to the back wheels. Mercedes obviously never made a manual transmission for the W204, so we have been trying to figure out what Boylan used for a gearbox. We’d love to know, because there’s quite a number of AMG’s that we argue would be improved by the ability to row your own gears.
Boylan has built this Hilux for one purpose; destroy rear tires. From this video, it is evident that Boylan has accomplished that mission. We think his styling of the truck is on-point too, with AMG side graphics and AMG logos. Wide 5-spoke wheels fit under fender flares and sit nicely on the lowered chassis.
Even more interesting is Boylan’s “completeness” of the build. If you check carefully in the video, Boylan has made the instrument cluster fully functional. Those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Mercedes TCU and ECU systems know this took some creativity. Although a number of things about this ride remain a mystery, it will have a feature in Speed and Sound Magazine fairly soon. We’ll be interested in seeing that.
We actually think this Hilux is a great example of what an X-class AMG could have looked like, if Mercedes didn’t kill off that model. However, considering the EU’s recent passing of more strict emissions regulations, we won’t count on a pickup AMG any time soon. Unless of course AMG wants to snatch another Nurburgring lap time as the fastest pickup.
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