A few km's from my home is this short and challenging test track. It proved a bit hard without having a bash plate the last time I was there. Now, with the air bags at the front and the Lokka front auto diff locker it is slightly more doable. I love the 2.4 l 16-valve efi petrol engine on road and usually it has enough torque to bring us through soft sand, deep mud and the regular steep tracks. Just about anything what most people would do in a van ;-) With the rock hopping here the lack of low end torque proves to be too much for The Wombat at the current set-up. Solutions can be found into adding reduction gears (a big hassle to fit them), an extra transfer case (near impossible to keep drive line angles within 35 degrees limit as the rear prop shaft is super short already), a supercharger (I got one from a Supra but there isn't much room to fit it) or possibly the addition of a torque converter between the clutch and manual gearbox (as I hate automatic gearboxes). As all options take great efforts to do I probably keep it with the occasional winch action. Not as cool, I know, but it's a bit more controlled.

• published: 02 Jul 2018
• views: 2141