Johannesburg - Sometimes the guys at Steve's Auto Clinic go a little off-beam, just to prove a point. A case in point, if you'll forgive the wordplay, is Volkswagen's Amarok bakkie.
The twin-turbo diesel in the top-ranked Amarok is already a tweaked version of Volkswagen's familiar two-litre TDI, rated at a respectable 132kW and 420Nm.
Nevetheless, the power freaks at SAC set out to prove that there was not only a lot more power available from this set-up, but that it could be accessed safely, reliably and, most important, usably.
Given a certain lack of mechanical empathy you can always squeeze bigger numbers out of an engine, at the expense of durability and driving pleasure. More power is all very well but, without a corresponding improvement in torque it's not going to do you much good, especially on a bakkie.
And that was the starting point for the development of the Mission: Impossible Amarok upgrade, which increases peak power and torque by 28 and 22 percent respectively, from 132kW and 420NM to 170kW and 515Nm.
The hardware consists of nothing more than a plug-in microprocessor chip module, which requires no modification to the Amarok's wiring to install. The technician simply unplugs the engine's ECU cable, plugs in the piggyback module and plugs the ECU cable into the back of the module.
Then your Amarok goes on to the dyno and that's where the magic happens, as the upgrade chip is tuned to work perfectly with that specific engine, allowing for engine age and condition, without compromising durability.
But wait, there’s more:
There's also a selector switch, which is installed on the dashboard - because the chip is loaded with not one but four upgrade maps, selectable 'on the fly' depending on what your Amarok is going to be used for today.
The Max Power mode gives you the full-monty 170kW and 515Nm, with extra-sharp accelerator response. Then there's a 4×4 and Caravan mode, giving the bakkie maximum low-down torque for towing or technical off-road work, and an economy mode, which resets the injection mapping for the best possible fuel consumption.
According to SAC, this'll actually get you quite close to Volkswagen's EU combined-cycle claim of 7.9 litres per 100km - in the real world! Finally, there's a standard mode, which does nothing more than optimise the standard 132kW / 420Nm setup, and a security mode, which disconnects the ECU from the engine, so that it won't run at all.
In this position you can unplug the selector switch and take it with you, making the bakkie very, very difficult to steal.
The M:I Amarok upgrade costs R7500, including installation and dyno tuning - and for an extra R7500 you can add a 76mm all-stainless steel exhaust system, specially developed for the BiTDI Amarok, which will give you another 10kW and 15-20Nm.