Featured in 4WD Custom Action Issue 13
The humble Suzuki Vitara is undoubtedly one of the world’s most under-rated 4WDs. Long dismissed as the softer, road-going cousin of the popular Sierra, most Vitaras spend their days teaching 16-year-old girls how to drive or carting shopping home. The occasional beach trip might be in order, especially at the hands of a fisho, but the fact is a large chunk go underutilised their whole life.
Truth is, the Vitara stays true to its off-road heritage by making good use of a proper transfer case, half-decent low-range gearing, and the low weight that makes Suzukis great. And lately, more people are cottoning onto the idea that the Vitara makes for one helluva good budget off-road toy, with a level of aftermarket support that rivals any of the bigger guns.
Over in the States, the ‘Sidekick’, as it’s known, is a popular off-road toy. A great deal many companies design and manufacture every conceivable aftermarket part for the ’Kicks, from engine swaps, to reduction gears, lockers, solid-axle swaps and exo cages.
When three mates, Andrew Stanton, Hamish Hudson and Rick Sammons, set out to build a couple of capable off-road toys on the cheap, they all looked to Vitaras as a starting block. However, each truck was going to be built for something slightly different, and it’s interesting to see how they’ve gone about those builds. Andrew went nuts and ended up with a ute-chopped, HiLux-axled comp truck, Hamish built himself an extremely capable IFS rig, and Rick turned his four-door into a budget family hack.
While the results might be different, the idea is the same – if you’re after a cheap, capable toy that can be made to do a wide variety of things, you could do worse than to look at the mighty Vitara!
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1 – Andrew’s ute features a fuel-injected 1600 bottom end mated to a GTI twin-cam head. The air intake has been plumbed into a snorkel through a couple of pieces of exhaust pipe and some heavy-duty rubber bends. There’s a Century crank battery, and an ARB air compressor to power the diff locks, but the engine bay remains fairly spartan otherwise
2 – Hamish bought his two-door with a blown engine for $500. He rebuilt the 1600, choosing to bring it back to factory specs just to get it to run, rather than going overboard. Nothing fancy here – just what’s needed to get out and 4WDing on the cheap
3 – Rick’s four-door retains the 16V, 1.6L inline four, which spits spent exhaust gases out through a 2in exhaust for a bit more oomph. The 16V is also plumbed into a snorkel; a testament to its previous life as a comp wagon
4 – An internal rollcage is the go for Hamish’s budget bush beast. It makes up for the soft-top’s lack of structural integrity, as well as ensuring the Vit’ complies with competition regulations. Cheap non-adjustable bucket seats and Monza race harnesses offer a fair improvement over the standard seats and belts
5 – For the ute, an external cage was built by Kaos 4x4. It incorporates the bullbar, rock sliders, rear bar and roof rack, and according to Andrew is extremely strong. He reckons he’s hit plenty of trees, and rolled it a couple of times without damaging the body – what more could you ask of your cage?
6 – The soft-top is lifted 3in off the ground with a Calmini suspension kit. Hamish installed the kit himself, which includes heavy-duty control arms, raised springs and extended brake lines. The swaybar’s been ditched for added wheel travel
7 – Rear end suspension for the soft-top is a simple set-up, with Calmini long-travel shocks, flexy coil springs and heavy-duty trailing arms to keep the diff in place. Its simplicity and effectiveness is what makes it a popular suspension set-up
» Continue to Page 2
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