By David Coxon Mitchell Seymour is a young man with a great 4WD future ahead of him, being the NZ4WDA Young Person of the Year (see also page 63) as was well as the youngest person to be invited to compete in the Suzuki Extreme 4WD Cup, a competition being set up especially for television and featuring the top 30 competitors from the national trials. When I caught up with Mitchell last month he hadn’t quite turned 16 but still had an impressive record of 4WD experience. After driving with his father on some of the local club trips, by the age of 12 he had his own Suzuki SJ410 club truck with fiddle brakes and a rear locker, which he used on the “more interesting” club trips and in the club champs. After racking up some good results and being a regular winner in the club champs, last year he moved into a D-class trials truck and took on the national trials series with co-driver Jared Dodds. (For those not familiar with the classes, this is the “anything goes” unlimited class.) After a couple of DNF teething problems with a broken diff and a steering belt, they got into the swing of things and came second in the last round of the trials, edging out many seasoned competitors. Mitchell’s truck is based (very loosely) on a Suzuki and was re-built for him by Howat Engineering, who had previously built it for the last owner. The Suzuki now has a 260 kW 5-litre Rover V8 with a Chrysler crankshaft, Chevy pistons, Buick 350 heads and Rover injection system. This is mated to a Holden Tri-matic auto running into a Toyota FJ40 transfer case with crawler gears. It has a Hilux front axle with Toyota series 80 Landcruiser hubs and CVs. Steering is driven by a hydraulic ram. The rear axle runs a Toyota FJ40 diff, and once again 80 series hubs and CVs. Rear steering is driven by another hydraulic ram. Howat Engineering ball bearing lockers are fitted front and rear and the coil springs are off a Honda Integra (because they were lying around). Competition wheels are 35 x 12½ Maxxis Trepador tyres running on 3 piece alloy rims with internal beadlocks. This setup means that each corner of the vehicle is the same, minimising the number of spares that need to be carried. So what is still Suzuki? Only the bonnet, steering wheel part of the dash board and some of the door sills. What makes Mitchell’s results in the national trials even more impressive is that the truck is about the same age as Mitchell, this is a very old truck by competition standards. So it is now back to Howat Engineering to have another truck built for the 2009/10 season. This will retain all the good design features of his current truck but take advantage of many improvements in design over the last 15 years to give it more stability, power, and reduce the weight. With a new truck and increasing experience I look forward to seeing some impressive placings for Mitchell and Jared in the Suzuki Extreme 4WD Cup and future national trials seasons. 713