Toyota has launched a new limited-edition Hilux to mark 50 years of the company's pickup truck. The Hilux Invincible 50 will be on sale from November, with final prices yet to be revealed by the firm.
Everyone who knows Toyota knows Hilux. Even people from countries which do not get the pickup know very well the name of one of the most famous nameplates in the history of automobiles. The Toyota Hilux has earned itself a reputation for being reliable and dependable. Wait, these adjectives fall short of summing up the pickup. We would, in fact, say the Hilux is nigh on indestructible. BBC Top Gear proved so by torture testing the truck extensively. This included drowning it, throwing a wrecking ball at it, setting fire to it, even having it crushed under a monster truck. Still the Hilux refused to die.
It's no wonder then, that the undying pickup has carved a name for itself in the automotive industry, and a reputation for solidly built vehicles for Toyota. To celebrate 50 years of the pickup, the Japanese automaker has come up with the Hilux Invincible 50. Toyota developed the limited edition pickup using modifications from Icelandic off-road specialist firm Arctic Trucks. It gets a handful of mechanical revisions, with the suspension being the most prominent of them. The new setup is built jointly by Arctic Trucks and Bilstein. The limited-edition pickup now rides taller, 40mm up front and 20mm out back.
It gets bespoke 16-inch alloy wheels finished in satin black and wrapped in BF Goodrich all-terrain rubber. Wider front and rear wheel arches puff up the truck nicely. The pickup bed now carries a double-hoop rollover bar, complete with four high-intensity LED lamp pods. Invincible 50 badging can be found peppered around the pickup, along with new mud flaps for the wheels from Arctic Trucks. And lest we forget, the ubiquitous 'TOYOTA' graphic on the tailgate which is instantly identifiable with the Hilux.
In the UAE, the Toyota Hilux uses a 2.7-litre inline-four engine that makes 164hp for propulsion. Power is sent to the all-wheel-drive system by way of a six-speed automatic gearbox. Standard equipment on the inside includes Toyota's Touch 2 infotainment unit with navigation, cruise control, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, and Pre-Collision safety system with automatic emergency braking. It is as yet unknown whether the limited-edition Hilux will make it to our shores. Fingers crossed!