But, as Top Gear proved in 2007, getting across the frozen wastes of the Arctic is considerably easier if you take a car.

Adding complication to a desert-bashing pickup might seem a recipe for disaster, but VW says the auto ‘box actually adds, er, simplicity: because eight ratios can cover such a wide spread, it negates the need for a low-range ‘box. What Car? In truth, I’m not exactly sure what the legal speed limit is here.

Bowler is building a new-old Defender with 567bhp, City, slicker: Honda City Turbo vs Honda e, Video: drifting the all-electric 1,400bhp Ford Mach-E. Did Volvo predict the future with this 1980s concept? The problem with Strategy Two is that it does kick up rather a lot of dust. Your information will be used in accordance with our privacy policy. This VW Amarok is the work of German outfit Delta4x4. “And can you fix it when it goes wrong?” He wafted a sausage-like arm at his faded, double-cab Hilux, so dented it made the Defender look showroom-fresh. It seems a little irrelevant. Even in the wildest corners of the Scottish Highlands, if your car breaks down it’ll be, at most, a matter of hours until someone passes. All those tests that inspired Top Gear to declare the Hilux the Most Indestructible Car in the History of Ever - the fact it’ll keep going whether drowned, burned or crushed under hundreds of tonnes of rubble - are exactly why Africa loves it so, why 40-year-old examples are still creaking round the deserts, savannahs and jungles after a lifetime’s abuse. Stop-start? You’re on your own out here. And watch out for the MurderZebras. What do people here do if they want, y’know, stuff? This website is made by BBC Studios Distribution. “No turbo on that, 750,000km, tight as a duck’s arse.” Few great romantic poems have been written in Afrikaans. Stopped for fuel a few days back in Kotzenshoop, right on the South African border, a couple of locals - both pink of face and khaki of attire - wandered over to peruse our pickup.

is part of Haymarket Automotive, a division of Haymarket Media Group © Haymarket Media Group 2019. Active suspension? The tyres and wheels are ‘Icelandic’ spec, and are so massive they require 200mm of wheelarch extensions to be bolted to the side. It’s a great, gruff rhino of a thing, roaring lustily on the move, its utilitarian cabin designed to be wipe-clean in the event of, say, having to bludgeon a bloodthirsty leopard to death against the steering wheel. The cambered surface shifts second by second, deeper sand dragging the wheels off the road, hard ruts bouncing the tyres from the ground. Well, here’s the mission statement: “Delta4x4 builds cars for men who have no problem connecting with their inner child. The profits we make from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. He regarded himself as one of the lucky ones, because he had a job. Especially big, no-nonsense pickups like this one. “Stresses the engine,” replied Hamface authoritatively. Cooked, delicious, and eventually eaten by zebras. - two or three thousand tiny reed huts perched against a scorched, dusty hillside. Bowler is building a new-old Defender with 567bhp, City, slicker: Honda City Turbo vs Honda e, Video: drifting the all-electric 1,400bhp Ford Mach-E. On dirt tracks, this means limiting yourself to about 20mph. Land Rover Defender 90 review: the Defender to have? Strategy One is to drive very slowly, making sure you have enough time to brake to a complete stop, should a kudu jump out in front of you.

No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. “Two point seven, is it? Beware, too, the kudu. Everywhere. I know you don’t pick up Top Gear for your monthly dose of social reality, but it’d be remiss not to note that when we talk about selling cars in Africa, we’re referring to the tiny, mainly white minority who can dream of affording a new one. BMW M340d Touring xDrive review: secretly the best car BMW makes? Humans? Most importantly, don’t crash. On the road, no pickup truck can match the best conventional SUVs for driving enjoyment or ride comfort. The Amarok seems up to the challenge. A four-pot turbodiesel might sound pretty workaday in Britain, but down here it’s regarded as almost radical. And, between the boulder-scrambling and the dune-sliding, thousands of miles of the sort of slippery, bumpy track we’re piling along now, vapour trails of dust billowing a mile behind our truck. But if your engine goes bang in the middle of the desert, you will become a) dead and b) medium-rare. Yesterday, I drove up the side of a 1-in-1 rubble canyon wall, breadknife-edged stones pinging off the tyres and clattering into the Amarok’s underbody. I can see… sand. Seven electric motors and a taste for drifting - the Mach-E 1400 likes to smoke. Tackling these roads at a decent lick is not a relaxing job. More specifically? “Hi, Namibian RAC? Bumping along at, ahem, enthusiastic speeds, coolly cocooned within the Amarok’s air-conditioned cabin, I wonder if its temp gauge might be exaggerating. Why? The Ford Ranger might have the same limitations as all pick-up... A worthy contender in the pickup class, but no front-runner. This is not for want of trying.

Yesterday, we passed through a scrubby settlement, a higgle-piggle of - what? And the second is which of four trim levels best suits your budget and desire for luxuries. Enter VW. Pickup trucks have become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks in part to some tempting tax advantages for business users. All models also have an eight-speed automatic gearbox and permanent four-wheel drive, although, if you do decide to buy one, you will have at least two decisions to make. Logos © 1996. And rocks.” There are no towns here, few signposts. Out here, reliability and indestructibility are all. The kudu is a large, well-built deer with twisted, razor-tipped horns a metre and a half in length. Fine as flour, the stuff gets everywhere, wedging its way into any nook or crevice, binding with any moisture to create gummy, grating paste. Land Rover gives Bowler permission to use Defender shape for rally-raid racers. Because they simply refuse to break. Not a chance.

VW hasn’t released prices or trim details for the Amarok auto yet, but if they are competitive with the Hilux, L200 and Navara, Volkswagen is sure to … The profits we make from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. At least you’re unlikely to be savaged by lions or leopards out here. No idea, sorry.

What do you need to know about Delta4x4? But that would make your inner child sad, wouldn’t it? Which means that - outside the big cities, at least - the car world’s relentless march of fashion, of newness and of technology all counts for bugger-all. By clicking below you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios.

Such a barren, lifeless landscape can’t support enough prey to keep a big predator well fed, so Africa’s largest, toothiest man-eaters tend to stick to the fertile savannah. By clicking below you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios. So far we have failed. Top Gear, predictably, has adopted Strategy Two.

Europe’s biggest auto maker is quietly taking over China, and South America too. I don’t fancy starring as the bloated, vulture-pecked carcass in the next David Attenborough documentary. “Turbo, eh?”, Before I could answer in the affirmative, the pinker, marginally less ham-like khaki-wearer interjected aggressively. Nice in theory, but quietness and posh kit counts for nothing in wildest Namibia unless the pickup they’re stuck to can survive a particularly nasty apocalypse. Which is why we have spent a week in one of Africa’s harshest corners, diligently trying to smash an Amarok to pieces. BMW M340d Touring xDrive review: secretly the best car BMW makes? This Amarok has been boosted with a 100mm lift kit, and heavy-duty Bilstein suspension. I lower the driver’s window, and am punched hard in the side of the head by a slug of brutal, dry heat, a fan-oven blast that sucks the moisture from my eyeballs and leaves me wheezing. No, it doesn’t mean ‘People’s Car’, it means ‘Properly Built Alternatives To Contemporary Brit Tat’. On these roads, the factor limiting your speed isn’t avoiding licence points, but a desire for self-preservation. Not days.

It’s available with Volkswagen’s latest, quietest diesels and a posh eight-speed auto ‘box, as well as the firm’s full road-car options list. It’s quiet and passably sophisticated, holding pace on motorways without reducing your ears to pulp. Er, Namibia? “And wha’s wrong with that?” He had, implausibly, a Scottish accent flecked with a hint of Afrikaans, which is precisely as weird as you might imagine. “Amarok,” grunted the bigger, more ham-like of the two, looking at the badge. BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation.