Who doesn’t love a big “TOYOTA” emblem in the middle of a truck grille? Right–nobody. Which is why we’re all about to haul down to South Africa to drop $50,000 on a Hilux GR Sport. I mean, not really, but this is a pretty sharp-looking rig.
Check out the new Gazoo Racing “GR Sport” trim of the Hilux pickup, running a 2.8-liter turbo diesel (332 lb-ft of torque!), six-speed automatic, and of course 4WD you can activate on the fly. That powertrain is all standard Hilux though; the GR Sport bits are mainly decorative plus a mild adjustment on front shock damping.
It’s a pretty bold cosmetic treatment, especially in white with the black grille, and while it doesn’t capture the imagination quite as vividly as Toyota’s old-school white-orange-yellow-red colorway from Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s glory days, it’s still pretty cool.
Toyota’s South African office says only 600 of these will be built, and no, you can’t get one in the United States. But now that the gorgeous large-font grille emblem from the Dakar racing Hilux is in a production car, it probably has a part number, which means you might be able to order one and ship it out here to make your Tacoma look bad as hell.
I’ll let you know if I find where you can order one. Meanwhile, if anybody at Toyota USA is reading this, please, start slapping some fun graphics kits on the Tacoma, 4Runner, Tundra and all five Land Cruisers that might sell this month.
