If there’s one other country that is as besotted with one-tonne bakkies as South Africa, it’s surely Australia, although Thailand is perhaps deserving of an honourable mention too.
But when it comes to localised special edition ‘utes’, Australia has some very interesting machinery, including Walkinshaw VW Amaroks and Nissan’s Navara Warrior.
Now Isuzu has teamed up with Walkinshaw to produce the hardcore looking D-Max Blade, which is said to offer an unparalleled combination of off-road performance and rugged reliability.
Although it’s not quite what you’d call a Raptor rival, with Isuzu keeping the standard 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine unchanged, it does have a comprehensive array of rugged new features that were developed for local conditions over 100,000km of durability testing in the Outback and at its proving grounds in Melbourne.
For starters, the Isuzu D-Max blade is fitted with a new MTV twin-tube suspension system that raises the ride height by 29mm. To ensure it found the perfect set-up for the vehicle, Walkinsaw evaluated 30 different damper tunes at its engineering facility in Victoria.
To provide the necessary traction, the Blade is fitted with a set of Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac RS all-terrain tyres with deep tread blocks and triple-ply sidewall protection.
Walkinshaw also doubled the thickness of the vehicle’s steel underbody protection, while also adding a dual-layer powder coat finish, and fitted a load rated recovery point system featuring an integrated cross-member.
To ensure that the Blade doesn’t get mistaken for any other D-Max variant, the special edition has been fitted with a bespoke grille, finished in satin black and featuring larger ‘ISUZU’ lettering and an integrated 112-Watt lightbar.
Moving to the side, flared wheel arches accentuate the new off-road tyres, while satin black side steps help compensate for the extra height of the vehicle.
A unique sports bar is part of the deal too, while satin black is also applied to the badges, mirrors and door handles.
Furthermore, the cabin includes Blade-exclusive accents, including embossed scuff plates and embroidered headrests and floor mats.
“One challenge was working with the pre-facelifted D-MAX, knowing that a facelift was coming. But we found a solution by working with Isuzu to 3D scan a pre-production vehicle in Thailand, back in June 2023, five months prior to the global launch, which expedited the development of the prototypes. Being trusted with that and to work with someone’s brand identity was quite the privilege,” said Walkinshaw design chief, Julian Quincey.
The facelifted Isuzu D-Max has yet to be introduced to South Africa.
At this stage there is no indication of whether this Aussie-bred special edition will come to South Africa, but as a reminder, local Isuzu fans do still have access to the AT35 Arctic Trucks D-Max model that was launched in 2023, although it is on the pricey side at R1,170,339.
IOL
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