TRAY RAPIDE

DIESEL’S BEEN DITCHED FOR V8s IN THE SUPERUTES CATEGORY – BUT IS A DUAL CAB WITH A 298KW LS POWERTRAIN ACTUALLY A GOOD IDEA? WE DRIVE ONE TO SEE IF IT’S AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS…

- DAMION SMY

THIS MUST BE THE FASTEST Mitsubishi Triton on earth. In fact, calling it a Triton is somewhat tenuous, because apart from the body and the hollowed-out dash in the cabin, there’s little that the Mitsubishi design and engineering department would’ve signed off on – and there’s no way the Japanese maker envisaged this when the first L200 rolled off the production line in 1978.

No time for that now: I’m in third-gear, too focused to look at the MoTeC speedo as I grip the wheel and hold on for dear life. The track’s tipping off-camber with a tight left-hander rushing towards me, and I know, just know, that we’re going to make it. Or are we? Could this thing tip over? After all, this is a dual-cab ute that’s being shoved along by a 6.2-litre V8... is it all too much for a ladder chassis brickie’s work truck?

This 2021 SuperUte prototype built by Sieders Racing Team is, at last, what the category and the fans have wanted. In the wake of Australian manufacturing’s end, replacing the Commodore and Falcon V8 utes that made up the category saw the series take on the new sales race winners: dual-cab utes, like the Toyota Hilux, the best-selling vehicle in Australia every year since 2016. To reflect that, they were powered by their manufacturer’s turbo-diesel powertrains running additives to avoid belching out black entrails. Kicking off in 2018, crowds and competitors were lacking, and the entertainment came in the form of clumsy rollovers...