Volkswagen Amarok W580 off-road flagship coming

Volkswagen Australia and Walkinshaw Automotive Group are preparing to release another local spin-off of the Volkswagen Amarok, with the new ute to be a go-anywhere flagship 4x4 off-roader.

Following this week’s release of the new Volkswagen Amarok W580 and W580S – a new fettled dual-cab from the two companies that focuses on on-road ability – VW Australia and Walkinshaw have confirmed that a similarly-themed off-road spin-off is under development.

Although official details remain tightly held, we can expect the still-to-be-named off-road version to be again based on the V6 diesel-powered Volkswagen Amarok TDI580 Highline, modified with additional clearance, new shock absorbers at each corner, a wider track, flared wheel-arches, a new wheel and tyre combination and a variety of other rugged exterior elements befitting of a rock-hopping flagship.

It will take on the likes of the Ford Ranger Raptor, the incoming facelifted Nissan Navara Warrior and yet another Australian-developed ute built along the same theme, the Toyota HiLux Rugged X.

Volkswagen Australia officials have confirmed to carsales that the second Walkinshaw collaboration will be revealed soon.

“There will be an off-road version which will be a more limited-edition; we’ll talk more about that soon,” said corporate communications general manager Paul Pottinger.

“That’s always been part of the proposal: the logical decision was to do a GT first because no-one has anything else like it.

“There’s no point doing it unless it’s somewhat out there, and that’s probably what we’ll see.”

Speaking with carsales, a Walkinshaw spokesman said there was plenty of scope to improve the 11-year-old Amarok’s off-road ability.

However, he admitted cost and architecture could be limiting factors. For example, introducing a four-link rear suspension configuration, like that found in the Ford Ranger Raptor, would likely add $20,000 onto the price alone.

To be competitive, the Volkswagen W580 off-road special would likely need to undercut the Raptor, which is priced at $77,690 plus on-road costs. (The road-oriented W580S is set at $79,990 plus ORCs.)

Whereas the Raptor’s team was embedded in the Ranger’s development, Walkinshaw’s involvement with Volkswagen is much more after the fact.

“We talked about whether we were going to go off-road at the beginning of this program. I think there’s definitely interest there from all parties to do something. It just depends on what we can achieve with the architecture of the car – that’s always going to be the limiting factor,” the spokesman said.

“The biggest thing with something like the Ranger Raptor is an architecture with increased wheel travel. We’re always going to be limited with wheel travel for something like this because the driveshaft angles are the driveshaft angles.

“We would be limited in terms of what we can do but we’d be able to put together a really good off-road pack if Volkswagen asked us to do it.

“With that said, I think 90 per cent of people are more likely to drive roads than they are jumping cars. We could definitely do it but there would be cost implications.”

Additionally, both Volkswagen and Walkinshaw have expressed interest in taking the partnership into the second-generation Volkswagen Amarok, which will be based on the Ford Ranger and is due to launch in Australia either late next year or early 2023.

“If the opportunity was there, absolutely. We’ve shown with this car that we’re not a one-trick pony and we can do a lot outside of Holden,” the Walkinshaw spokesman said.

“We’ve moved into this left-hand drive to right-hand drive business as well but we don’t want to lose sight of our strengths in performance and tuning.

The Volkswagen Amarok W580 is now a permanent member of the Australian line-up, with production set to exceed 2000 vehicles between now and the end of the current lifecycle.