By: IOL Motoring Staff
Wettstetten, Germany - This, fellow beetle-crushers, is the 4x4 double-cab the Amarok was born to be, with a deep V8 voice and some seri-aas muscle.
And it's not even all that outrageous; all German tuning haus MTM has done is to ditch the standard two-litre turbodiesel in favour of a 4.2-litre V8 TDI and eight-speed Tiptronic transmission from Audi, mildly tweaked to deliver a resounding 302kW, backed up by 930Nm from 2000-3000rpm.
Not only will the oddly-named Passion Desert go straight up the side of a house in first gear, it'll hit 100 from a standing start (on the level!) in six seconds flat and top out at 240km/h - depending on your choice of tyres.
But power is nothing without control, so MTM upgraded the brakes with huge 405mm front and 356mm rear disks, behind 20 inch BBS alloys wearing 3-05/50 Cooper off-road radials.
The rest of it is mostly off-the-shelf armour - bull-bar, roll-bar and bashplates - with a superb coppery spray-job and appropriate wheel-arch extensions, while the inside is upgraded with acres of alcantara synthetic suede and contrast stitching.
And now for the bad news: An MTM Amarok Passion Desert will set you back about €200 000 (R3.5 million) ex works in Germany - and that does not include the cost of the Amarok base vehicle, which you have to supply.