TRD Hilux 4000SL vs. LS3 HSV Maloo R8 Review

The underlying theme here is certainly nothing revolutionary. Take a standard car, tweak it a little, bolt on a supercharger and bingo you’re done. But sadly the execution of such modifications typically results in a beastly, undriveable, and impractical vehicle that’s impossible to live with day to day – not much has changed.

At the heart of this brawny performance is a water-to-air intercooled twin rotor M90 Eaton screw type supercharger developed jointly with TRD and Magnuson Products to suit the 4.0 litre Toyota V6 appliqué. Instead of using a turbo like many other post-production enhanced vehicles, a supercharger runs directly off the crank and does not need to overcome inertia in relying on the build up of exhaust pressure to spool.

The engine’s already adequate performance (174kW) is now pushed well up the food chain to pump out a meaty 225kW @ 5,500rpm thrusting the 1,800kg monster from standstill to 100km/h in a very tidy 7.2 seconds, provided you’re on the ball and provided the road is absolutely bone dry.

Torque figures are perhaps even more impressive with 453Nm on tap ‘til 3,400rpm offering strong, effortless in-gear pull and loads of low down grunt for tackling either heavy loads or towing. It’s a noisy power, almost obtrusive though the aural characteristics offered in supercharging an engine, to me at least, are rather sublime. It’s a whining growl, curiously deep and corporally enticing almost as though it begs you to keep prodding the loud pedal, but in some instances you’ll do so at your own peril.

The five-speed auto is electronically controlled and collates data including throttle position, vehicle speed, engine speed, and braking signal to best adapt the transmission to suit the driver’s personality, again the execution of this drive-by-wire technology leaves a lot to be desired.

There’s a very fine line between inducing movement and losing the back end completely. The throttle pressure is just far too sensitive and the lack of ESP feels in some instances like a recipe for disaster.

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