Toyota GR HiLux to outmuscle Ford Ranger Raptor

Intense competition at the top end of the dual-cab ute segment is propelling Toyota, as the market leader, towards a motorsport-inspired Ranger Raptor-slaying desert dueller of its own – the Toyota GR HiLux.

Just as VW Australia has this week shown its trump card with the forthcoming Volkswagen Amarok W580 – brought to you by Australia’s own Walkinshaw Automotive Group (think: HSV), in league with the German ute’s engineering team in Hannover – Toyota Motor Corporation, with full support from its Aussie subsidiary, is planning a high-performance mid-size pick-up of its own.

Believed to be well into development after Toyota sought trademark protection more than a year ago for the GR HiLux moniker in Australia and other markets, the black-ops ute is expected to be powered by the same high-torque turbocharged V6 diesel engine set to debut in the next-generation 2021 Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, providing significant muscle to the tune of 200kW and 650Nm.

The current 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel in the Ford Ranger Raptor produces 157kW/500Nm, while the lusty 3.0-litre V6 oiler in the Volkswagen Amarok TDI580 models churns out 200kW (on overboost) and 580Nm.

Toyota clearly wants to leverage its Dakar Rally success after winning the world’s most gruelling off-road event in 2019 with a heavily modified, mid-engine V8 petrol-powered rally-spec GR HiLux.

Asked if the links between Toyota’s Dakar Rally HiLux would extend to a production-ready GR HiLux – just as they do between the GR Yaris and Toyota’s World Rally Championship (WRC) success, and the forthcoming GR hypercar and Toyota’s Le Mans 24-Hour wins – the response from a local spokesperson was this: “Exactly.”

The Toyota rep would neither “confirm or deny it”, but a current-generation GR HiLux is almost certainly out of the question given the challenges involved in adapting a new V6 diesel under the bonnet.

“The HiLux chassis is built for a four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine,” the spokesperson said.

Instead, the next-generation Toyota HiLux that is due to emerge from 2024 will be based on a much newer TNGA-F (ladder frame) platform architecture that also underpins the next Toyota LandCruiser and Tundra full-size ute.

And this is where the Japanese brand’s special-ops GR team will focus its efforts.

“We’re not excluding GR sub-branding from any core model,” said the spokesperson, adding that “we wouldn’t rule anything out”.

The spokesperson said there was no reason why HiLux couldn’t spawn a GR model and pointed out that Toyota signalled its intent with the trademark protection secured for the HiLux GR moniker in Japan and Australia.

The next step will be deciding where to build the top-shelf dual-cab ute, but Toyota has indicated it will not simply be a localised version such as the Walkinshaw-tweaked Volkswagen Amarok W580, the Premcar-fettled Nissan Navara N-TREK Warrior or even the Toyota Australia-developed HiLux Rugged X.

“Toyota is thinking they need their own separate way of building GR models,” said the spokesperson.

The Toyota GR Supra is built on a unique production line in Austria alongside the BMW Z4, while the GR Yaris is constructed at Toyota’s Motomachi plant, where the Lexus LFA supercar was built.

Suffice it to say, whenever the extreme HiLux ute emerges, it won’t be cheap.

An $80,000 price tag would be a good starting point, given the new HiLux Rugged X is already a $70,000 proposition, and the hard-core HiLux GR pick-up truck will almost certainly involve an overhaul akin to the $77,190 Ford Ranger Raptor.

The Volkswagen Amarok W580 will also be around the same mark when pricing is confirmed on December 1.