South Marlborough deer farmer and forester Mike Holmes is a competitive man who likes to win at all costs. When his heavily modified Nissan, itself a winner, was getting too heavy, Mike set out to replace it with a more powerful yet lighter vehicle. Four years ago he found a suitable substitute in Christchurch in the form of a V8 Hilux that had been built up by Mike Tall of 4WD Upgrades for his own use.

Now, this was no ordinary Hilux, as it was running an LT4 Chevrolet V8 through an automatic gearbox mated to an 80 Series transfer case. The front diff was an 80 Series Land Cruiser with Hilux diff head fitted with air locker, and the rear was fully 80 Series, again with an ARB air locker.

Mike has given the vehicle some serious abuse in competition, not only in winch challenges but also off-road racing and enduros, and the punishment has meant more serious upgrades and enhancements along the way.

It started life as a 1986 Hilux but there is little left of the original vehicle. Even the rear section of chassis had been cut away and the rear chassis and diff from an 80 Series Land Cruiser have been grafted on to make the conversion from leaf springs to coils easier. The two chassis are the same width so it was easy to match them together.

When Mike purchased the vehicle it had what was understood to be an LT1 V8, but when he came to have the engine rebuilt they found it was actually an LT4 5.7-litre fuel injected Chevy Corvette V8. The LT4 is a special performance version of the engine with high torque output used in the Corvette and Camaro from 1996. Now it has high performance pistons plus a few other enhancements that have increased the output significantly from the original 250kW. Fitted with extractors and a three-inch exhaust, the engine management is controlled by a Microtech computer and now has 550Nm of torque at the rear wheels, which gives it incredible performance off-road and a 200km/h top speed in high range.

For the full story see the August issue of NZ4WD