West Auckland’s Muriwai Beach was at its moody best when (very) early one chilly spring morning I got to drive Holden NZ’s radical ROX concept ute. 

By now, even if you live somewhere so remote that you never see a TV and you only get to read a newspaper when it is months old, you will no doubt have – at the very least – seen a photograph of Holden NZ’s radical ROX concept ute.

Since its official media launch ahead of Fieldays to its official ‘public’ unveiling as the ‘eye candy’ on the company’s stand at the annual farming sector expo at Mystery Creek, the ROX – and custom BBQ-equipped trailer that travels with it – have literally been everywhere.

It is because Holden NZ learned their lesson the last time they showed a similar but factory-fettled Colorado ‘Extreme’ here. Because it was strictly ‘for display only’ your typical Kiwi ute buyer looked, but when they wanted to, were not allowed to touch, let alone drive it, so decided it was (just another) cynical marketing ploy and wandered off to look at more pukka product on other stands.

This time around there would be no repeating that mistake, however. Once the company decided to build a ‘concept ute’ of its own, the vehicle – a much modified Colorado Z71 – was always going to be a runner as well as a looker... no matter how hard it was going to be to unite the two very different dynamics.

Tall order!

For a start the ROX looks HUGE alongside a showroom standard TD DC Colorado; something to do methinks with the choice – nah, demand – from the marketing team for a set of deep dish, negative offset 18 in. dia. alloy rims and 12.5 in. wide 35 inch dia. Black Lion brand M/T tyres.

Just to get them to fit under the wheel arches the suspension had to be raised just over 100mm (four inches), the body a further 51mm (two inches) plus a set of bespoke fender flares were added to each arch to make sure the extra 150mm of track width didn’t raise the ire of the boys-in-blue.

Though the Colorado’s 147kW/500Nm 2.8 litre turbo-diesel engine remains nominally untouched beneath it, the special one-off, hi-rise carbon fibre bonnet (as light as it is good looking) adds to the ‘tough-as-don’t-mess-with-me vibe’ the ROX carries off so well.

Because it is so far off the ground you don’t immediately notice the Integrated Roof Basket and Sports Bar but they play a key role both in the overall look and execution, being a perfect mounting point for all four (count them) LED spot lights, plus somewhere (other than the tray) to mount the spare wheel and tyre.

Step right up

What you do notice – not to mention start using – straight away, are the custom tubular steel rock slider/sidestep combinations expertly mounted on either side of the cab. Not only do they look good, they make getting in and out of what feels more like a tree house than a conventional ute cab second nature.

Completing the picture outside is the obligatory snorkel, and a set of a custom ‘wide body’ bars front and rear. Oh and there’s also a winch tucked in behind the bar up front.

Proof of concept 

I don’t mind admitting that I was a tad intimidated when I first got up close and personal with the ROX. It’s just so big, and tall, and macho-looking... seriously, if my body had suddenly started morphing into a muscle-rippling, white singlet-tearing clone of The Hulk as I opened the driver’s door for the first time, I wouldn’t have been surprised! 

Of course, it didn’t and once up, inside and with the doors closed the only thing I noticed straight away was the extra mid back and shoulder support afforded by the locally-produced RVE sports seats. 

Auckland-based RVE has developed quite a reputation for the quality of its leatherwork and I can now see why. 

By now, however, you are probably wondering to yourself, ‘what’s the bloody thing like to drive?’ I know, I was as Holden NZ PR supremo Ed Finn and I belted up and headed ‘up the beach’ just after 7.00am. 

On one level, nothing really can prepare you for such a different (I suppose the word is) perspective as you ride along a road you have driven literally hundreds of times before looking into the tops of trees rather than their (lower) trunks. 

That’s the first thing. 

The second is how compliant and well-damped the suspension action was, yet – in stark contrast – how hard those 35 inch Black Lion M/ Ts ride at their recommended 50+psi pressure. 

You also (at least I do and did) notice a definite knock in performance (compared to time spent recently in a standard Colorado) courtesy the extra rolling resistance of the huge and aggressively treaded tyres. 

That said, nothing – not even the deep and pillow-soft sand on the dune side (not the dune itself, mind) of the high tide line – stopped the ROX as Ed and I headed up the beach. The sand certainly slowed things down but never enough to warrant even the thought of dropping the pressures. 

The bottom line? 

Ex-showroom all a standard Colorado needs to go places off-road that would see most of us with inverted sphincter muscles is a set of serious mud tyres. Sure you can add a snorkel, roof basket with LEDs and ‘mean-as bro’ bars front, side and rear. But bar needing a winch to get you out of a tight spot, no one accessory is going to get you further up a beach or tough-as track. 

That, as anyone reading this magazine will know, is not the point though, is it? 

Personalising our ‘truck’ is one of the reasons we are all ‘into’ 4x4s and the 4x4 scene. That said, few of us will actually want (and even fewer) need a fully tricked out ‘truck’ like the ROX. 

Even just looking at it gives us ideas though, ideas we can use to plan our own ‘cut-cloth’ version. 

So to sum up, all I can say is a rousing ‘On Ya!’ Holden NZ for the inspiration as much as the short beach ride. And please don’t stop there. I can see a burgeoning market, for instance, for toughened up SUVS… so next year how about letting the mad scientists at RVE loose on an Equinox, or perhaps even an Acadia!