Toyota GR Thailand Goes Racing with The Hilux Champ Pick-Up Truck!

Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand has taken the Hilux Champ pick-up truck racing in the Thai Super Pickup championship.

Remember the basic yet stylish Toyota Hilux Champ (also known as Toyota Rangga) launched in Thailand last year? It appears that Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand (TGR Thailand) has taken this tiny pick-up truck for racing in the Thailand Super Pickup championship.

Unlike its bare-boned, road-legal twin, this race-prepped Hilux Champ benefits from a slew of serious upgrades that transform this cutesy pick-up truck into a track-ready monster. On the aesthetic side, the GR-badged Hilux Champ gets a more aggressive bodykit that features a much larger front intake and vented front hood for better airflow.

The rugged front face is complemented by a muscular stance thanks to the bolt-on fender extensions and a lowered suspension setup with negative cambers, while the tailgate gains a GT-style rear wing and a large rear diffuser. Not to forget, the GR-badged Hilux Champ also rides on race-spec wheels and tyres, as well as a special Gazoo Racing livery.

The race treatment continues as we get inside the souped-up Hilux Champ, with its simplistic interior being stripped down to the bone and packed with tons of racing goodies. Key highlights include a single Sparco bucket seat with matching Sparco steering wheel, a full roll cage bolted directly to the truck’s ladder-frame chassis, a racing-style gear shifter for its manual gearbox, and more.

The race-prepped Hilux Champ uses the same 2.4-litre turbodiesel mill as its road-legal twin with several upgrades.

Under the hood, the race-prepped Hilux Champ gets the same 2.4-litre 4-cyl turbodiesel mill as its road-legal twin, albeit with a tune-up work that bumps up its stock 148 HP output to an undisclosed figure. The powertrain upgrades come in the form of a new turbocharger, larger intercoolers, a custom exhaust system, as well as reworked intake and fuel setups.

In the Thai Super Pickup championship, the GR Hilux Champ represents the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Thailand, where it is pitted against several other single-cab pick-up trucks such as the Mitsubishi Triton, Ford Ranger, and the Isuzu D-Max. The regulations only allow entries from single-cab, rear-wheel-driven (RWD), and diesel-powered pick-up trucks, which explains why TGR Thailand chose the diesel-powered Hilux Champ instead of the petrol variants.

The Toyota Hilux Champ is not the only factory-backed, non-GR Toyota model that has gone racing in the northern neighbouring Kingdom, as TGR Thailand also organised several one-make competitions for models such as the Yaris hatchback, Corolla sedan, and even the Yaris Cross SUV.