Volkswagen Australia unleashes hardcore Amarok

Tuesday, 9 March 2021

Take a peek behind the scenes of the Amarok W580's development.

Volkswagen Australia has revealed its idea of a hardcore Amarok, but it’s not exactly a Ford Ranger Raptor fighter.

That’s because VW isn’t bothering trying to beat Ford at its own game, instead building the tuned Amarok W580 for ultimate on-road performance.

The W580 has been developed by Walkinshaw, gaining a unique suspension tune including MTV twin-tube shock absorbers front and rear, wheel-arch extensions and special 20×9.0-inch dark ‘Clayton’ forged alloy wheels with Pirelli Scorpion 275/50R20 ATR tyres.

The W580 is a hardcore Amarok but it’s not a Ford Ranger Raptor competitor.

This larger rubber increases the ride height, while the front suspension has been lifted by 40mm at the front axle line “to give the vehicle a more aggressive overall stance”.

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Further visual changes include a Walkinshaw grille and lower bumper, bi-Xenon headlights and decals on the bonnet and sides.

Two versions are available over the ditch, the base W580 and the upspecced 580S, which adds branded tips, LED fog lights, a styling bar, more decals, Vienna leather interior seats with Walkinshaw head restraint branding and a custom twin exhaust system with side pipes at the rear wheels and branded tips.

Despite the extra kit, the 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 is untouched, making the same 200kW/580Nm (on overboost) as other 580 Amarok models.That’s understandable as tweaking the engine would have added more development time to the truck and the base powerplant is still well up on competitors like the Ranger Raptor, which makes 157kW/500Nm.

According to David Kermond, Walkinshaw’s chassis engineer who spoke to carsales, the people working on the W580 project all came from the HSV GTS-R W1. “We really put that idea back into this car and made it a GT-spec car. It doesn’t feel like a truck when you’re pushing it.”

“It’s very sure-footed, it’s very dynamic in the way it drives. The donor vehicle allows us to do that because it’s a such a good platform to start with and coupled with the [V6] engine really allows us to highlight those characteristics.”

Walkinshaw says it will build around 1200 of the VW ute each year, more than initially anticipated. In fact, the first batch of 42 units sold out in five minutes.

We’re not holding out hope for a New Zealand launch of the W580 but it’s possible. We’ve reached out to Volkswagen New Zealand to see if it’s on the cards.

In Australia, the ute costs AU$71,990 for the W580 and $79,990 for the W580S. For comparison, the Amarok V6 Aventura starts at AU$72,790 (NZ$78,210), while the New Zealand Aventura costs $90,000.