Drag race: Mitsubishi L200 vs VW Amarok vs Toyota HiLux on and off-road!
We put three of the UK's top pick-up trucks through a speed test on tarmac then go flat out in two of them off-road
The Mitsubishi L200 pick up is the most economical, the tightest turning and the biggest load hauling truck in its class. The Japanese firm also reckons the L200 is the fastest accelerating pick up truck too. But we couldn’t just take Mitsubishi's word for that. So we decided to put it head-to-head in a standing quarter mile drag race against a Volkswagen Amarok and a Toyota Hilux.
This Mitsubishi L200 has a 2.4-litre turbo diesel engine with up to 178bhp. The Volkswagen Amarok also produces 178bhp but this time it's from a 2.0-litre bi turbo diesel engine. The Toyota Hilux, meanwhile, has a 3.0-litre turbo diesel with 169bhp… so is actually least powerful model here. Outright power isn’t everything though.
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Gearing, traction and the weight of these sizable vehicles will also be a factor. And when it comes to the old power-to-weight ratio, the Mitsubishi does have an advantage being over 100kg lighter than the other two. The drag race looked like being a close run think on paper, watch the video to see how things panned out on the runway.
The Tarmac drag race was just the first part of our pick-up speed test, however. These pick-up trucks aren’t just driven on-road and that’s why we also conducted another test – an off-road drag race with the L200 up against the HiLux. This time the vehicles’ gearboxes were set in low range mode. Would the outcome be the same? Watch the video to find out.
