Toyota Recreated The 'Top Gear' Hilux Torture Test With A New Hilux, And It Survived Too

Of all the stunts that came out of classic "Top Gear," subjecting an old Toyota Hilux to increasingly extreme torture tests to examine Toyota's legendary reputation for durability has got to be one of the most famous. The first part of that segment has amassed 31 million views on YouTube since it was posted 16 years ago.

Now, Toyota has paid homage by recreating the torture test — one part of it, at least — with the recently redesigned Hilux that it sells overseas. The stunt was put on by Toyota UK, which dropped a camper trailer (or a caravan, as they like to call 'em in that country) onto a new Hilux. Specifically, an electric version in a trim aptly called Invincible. The roof, sides of the bed, and the top of the windshield were trashed, and the truck probably isn't passing any safety inspections any time soon, but the cabin was unaffected enough to let somebody get in, start it, and drive off.

Stunt aside, the video is worth watching just to see how many disclaimers and fine print this sort of thing calls for when done in the context of a manufacturer PR exercise and not a Sunday night TV show.

In case you've never seen the original from the third series of "Top Gear" that aired 23 years ago (!), Jeremy Clarkson took a fourth-gen Hilux and drove it down some stairs, scraped it against stone walls, drove it into a tree head-on, left it to drown in the sea, drove it through a shed, knocked it around with a wrecking ball, and set it on fire. James May later upped the ante by parking it on top of an apartment that was to be demolished and letting it fall as the building collapsed.

Yes, the Hilux still started after all that. If anything, the dropping of the caravan on its roof was one of the tamer things that old truck was subjected to. Whether a new Toyota pickup (one the company sells in North America, perhaps?) would survive all the other stuff — the sea water, the fire, the 23-story freefall — is a bigger question mark. Maybe that's an idea better left for the next season of the revived "Grand Tour."