Arctic Trucks’ AT37 version of the new Toyota Land Cruiser will appeal to pose-truck punters –but what they’ll get is a vehicle with seriously good engineering at its heart.

Getting your hands on the new Toyota Land Cruiser is easier said than done. Much easier, what with the initial UK supply already having been gobbled up. Those that do exist for sale all seem to have been ordered by the trade and put up for some cheerfully offensive amount more than list price.

The upside of this is that if you do somehow manage to buy one, you can probably afford to buy more or less anything. Like getting it converted by Arctic Trucks, for example. This is never a cheap process, but if you want cheap
stuff you know where to look and it’s not Iceland.

That’s where Arctic Trucks comes from, as you probably know. The company was founded in 1990 as part of the country’s Toyota importer and went on to gain fame for turning Hi-Luxes and Land Cruisers into big beasts capable of rolling over the sort of terrain you get in a world of glaciers. The really big AT44 is an icon (the number refers to the diameter of its tyres) but even the AT32 and AT35 conversions can transform a truck’s presence. In particular in the UK,
the latter has appeared for several years as a factory approved conversion in the Isuzu D-Max range.

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We like Jeep. We like the vehicles it has been making for decades. We like the way it makes them fun. We like
that it’s not pretentious. We like what it does at Moab every Easter. We like the way it has protected the Wrangler and kept it real. Jeep stands for off-roading with a smile on your face.

Of course, in recent times Jeep in Europe has come more to stand for platform-shared Fiat derivatives, entertainingly packaged and, at their best, thoroughly likeable – but very different in nature to the vehicles that made Jeep a legend. The Renegade and Compass are related to the Fiat 500X, and the Avenger points to the future by sharing its DNA with cars from Fiat, Alfa, Peugeot, Vauxhall and DS.

That’s not the end of the world if it’s done well, though. The Renegade and Compass have until recently both been made in Trailhawk form, supplementing their family friendly attributes with a level of off-road ability that was more than just a token effort. Jeep know what it must do to make sales, but it also knows what it must do to prevent that from tarnishing its brand.

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What’s the first Subaru that comes to mind? The Outback, possibly, or the Legacy if you’re showing off. The Brat, if
you’re trying to be all down with the kids and you don’t need to guess the colour of Charli XCX’s underwear, or the Tribeca if you’re really showing off. The Sumo if what you’re actually showing off is your age, or the SVX if you’re even older and still haven’t got over all the sex you never had in your twenties.

Obviously, cos Colin McRae it’s the Impreza for everyone else. Subaru did a load of research and that’s the model that
came out on top. But right behind it was the Forester – and since Subaru is to all intents and purposes an SUV and crossover specialist these days, that’s very relevant.

The Outback is the one that inherited its DNA from the original Legacy, which had low range and height-adjustable air
suspension, so here in the off-road world it might be the first you name – but for a vast number of people to whom off-tarmac driving is just a thing they do every day because of what they do and where they live, the Forester is pretty much a tool of everyday life.

And it’s a good one, too. Subaru is always near the top of those customer satisfaction surveys you see everywhere and its brand retention rate is sky-high. To put it another way, once you own a Subaru you’ll always want to own a Subaru.

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THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY recently held a ‘Regional Development Day on Managing Off Road
Activities.’ This rang alarm bells within the Green Lane Association (GLASS); the term ‘off road’ is often used incorrectly
(on purpose in some cases), encouraging people to view responsible rights of way use as being no different to illegal offroading on private or public land.

Within GLASS, it was felt that the association should seek the opportunity to be represented. While fighting battles is
one part of defending people’s legal access to public rights of way, building bridges is by far the most effective strategy. With the help of a friend, Wiltshire rep John Lipiatt was offered an invitation to attend from the Defence Infrastructire Organisation (DIO), which was hosting the event at the MOD’s Westdown Camp premises.

‘Although grateful for the invite,’ reports John in the June issue of GLASS’ Green Lanes Bulletin, ‘I must admit to feeling
a little trepidatious at the thought of being the only user representative among officers from nine Local Authorities. But
they were all friendly and I think it fair to say that they were as surprised to see me as I was to be there.

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You’re probably quite well used to concept vehicles that look like off-road dream machines but turn out to be all mouth and no trousers. Especially when they come from manufacturers whose showroom selection suggests they wouldn’t know off-roading if it hit them in the face. So you might be surprised to learn that the Audi Q6 e-tron offroad concept is no pretender. In fact with portal axles and the ability to climb gradients of up to 45 degrees, you’d dismiss it at your peril.

The portals deliver a very significant increase of 160mm (6.3”) in ride height and a 250mm (9.8”) wider track. They’re
also geared down to increase torque at the wheels by 50% – bringing down the top speed of the Q6 e-tron to 108mph but enabling it to achieve its headline gradient scaling ability.

‘Innovations always begin with asking the right question,’ says Audi. ‘For the Q6 it was: How can we create a highly emotive electric vehicle?

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