The Toyota Hilux is many things, from a work truck to a trusty friend and even a Top Gear celebrity (remember when they almost couldn’t break one back in the day?). And, if you ask some eccentric owners out there, the mid-size pickup is also a quarter-mile weapon. Case in point with the example parked on our screens, which keeps the motivation in the Toyota family, albeit going with a good old 2JZ engine swap.
Nicknamed Draglux, this is an ex-generation Hilux (Gen VII) like no other. of course, as anybody who’s tried to chase quarter-mile times knows, having loads of power is one thing and putting this down efficiently is another. So, let’s zoom in on the build and see how this mid-size Toyota pickup is able to deliver 9s runs in the 1/4-mile.
Since the Hilux isn’t offered in North America, we’ll mention this is only slightly smaller than the corresponding Tacoma U.S. customers get (think: 2 inches shorter and about the same difference in terms of width). Oh, and here’s a Tacoma that can party just as hard as this Hilux at the drag strip.
Now, the 2.5-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder factory motor is long gone. This was replaced by a fully built 3.0L straight-six, while the 2JZGTE engine works with a Garrett G42 1200 turbo. The engine fits under the hood just fine, but there are plenty of other ways to tell this isn’t your average workhorse, such as the drag pack wheels shod in Mickey Thompson tires (when at the track), which required beefy rear overfenders.
It used to channel all the fury via a manual gearbox, but that didn’t go too well
We’re looking at a project coming from South Africa, where these trucks are called bakkies. And, in the cars.co.za video below, owner and builder Raymond Swart explains that the machine went through more than one manual tranny before moving on to an automatic. The Draglux sports a GM Turbo 350 three-speed unit built to cope with all the muscle.
Speaking of which, while we have no max power rating—the good old dyno wheelspin reason is listed for this RWD bad boy—we can tell you that the boosted 2JZ makes 1,200 Nm (885 lb-ft) of torque, which apparently makes for a local record.
To date, its best quarter-mile time sits at 9.7 seconds, which is enough to leave a Bugatti Veyron behind, but not a Chiron. Still, since owners of Molsheim hypercars don’t take their beast to the track all that often, Raymond has set himself a more realistic goal, namely to crush supercars… and convince the Draglux to run a 9.5s quarter-mile.
