Freak or Unique?
first featured in 4x4 magazine, april 2019
The Suzuki X90 was one of the first cars ever to be designed specifically to appeal to women. But behind its girl-about-town looks, it was almost identical to the original Vitara – making it ideal for off-road enthusiasts who want to stand out in a crowd...
Back in the days when every new 4x4 was a proper one, the Suzuki Vitara became one of the very most popular options both among new car buyers and, as time
went on, off-road enthusiasts. It wasn’t as basic and tough as its contemporary, the Samurai, but it was cheap and easy to modify and there was never a shortage to choose from.
There was another Suzuki, however, that never became anything like as popular as the Vitara.
Yet mechanically, they were almost exactly the same vehicle. The X90 was a strange coupe-like thing, designed as a lifestyle buggy and commonly associated with girls about town – but under the skin, it was more of an off-roader than many of the most rugged-looking 4x4s you see today.
Being a Vitara at heart, the X90 was capable of being modified using parts designed for its more common sibling. Few have ever taken advantage of this fact; of those who have, one of the first was Simon Touron, and the X90 you’re looking at was the result of his pioneering spirit in the workshop.
Simon bought his X90 knowing it would make an attention-grabbing off-road plaything, not least because its presence alongside vehicles
like Vitaras, Samurais and Land Rovers would be totally unexpected. ‘I used to run SJs,’ he told us, ‘but I was eager to have something different. The X90 offers the perfect combination of Suzuki reliability and off-road prowess and is also a little bit unusual.’
Given its close relationship to the Vitara, you won’t be surprised to discover that the X90 is powered by the same 16-valve 1.6-litre petrol engine that delivers an adequate turn of speed both on and off the road. Transmission also comes via the same five-speed manual gearbox used in the Vitara.
Simon wasn’t shy in stating the loftiness of his ambition with the project. And quite literally lofty it was, too: ‘I want the truck to be the biggest and best around.’ With this in mind, he used a +3” Calmini lift kit to upgrade its suspension.
It was a system designed for the Vitara, but it bolted straight on. ‘Calmini doesn’t manufacture an X90-specific upgrade,’ Simon confirmed. ‘But it was no trouble to fit the Vitara kit.’
Augmenting the raised suspension, on went a +3” body lift from Overland Components – again intended for the Vitara but easily transferred to the X90. Simon installed this himself – taking a total of 18 hours to fit both the body spacers and the suspension lift in one marathon workshop session. Once this was achieved, he’d created sufficient room beneath the wheelarches for a set of 31x10.50R15 tyres – though when we spoke to him, he was already after yet more height and was planning to fit +1” spring spacers to take it further up than ever.
Not that he was unaware of what happens if you push it too far. The more extreme the mods, the greater the strain they place on the vehicle’s standard components, and this is something he recognised as placing limits on the extent of future work. ‘I want a big truck,’ he admitted, ‘but I also want it to be reliable. In the end, the project’s confines are dictated by the strength of the standard parts that I leave unchanged.’
Having said that, only breaking one differential in 18 months of non-stop off-roading doesn’t sound like a case of asking too much. What it does sound like a case of, though, is not making mods for their own sake. ‘I don’t very often struggle to maintain traction,’ he told us, ‘and I think installing lockers would be a case of over- engineering.’ Even a relatively tame modification such as a limited-slip diff would put increased strain on the halfshafts, and if you don’t need the extra traction then why bother?
As it stands, Simon’s attitude when planning the vehicle was that leaving the axles standard was going to be the most cost-effective route to take. Replacing a broken one with second-hand parts was looking like a cheaper approach than going in hard with the mods, and the lack of damage since then pretty much bears this out.
It stayed standard under the bonnet, too, though Simon removed the airbox and fitted HT leads from a Ford Sierra. These were cheaper than original Suzuki components and also proved a lot more reliable: ‘I went through eight sets of Suzuki leads in eight months! I haven’t had to change the Sierra parts since fitting them.’
The engine and box were otherwise standard, but Simon fitted a Centerforce clutch in between them and a Samurai transfer case behind. The gearing in the latter was about right to cancel out the effect of the taller tyres, which he reckoned was a pretty effective and reasonably inexpensive way of getting the overall drive ratio back to normal.
Further deep-seated mods include the addition of a full exo cage, which Simon spent six months designing before fitting it with some help from a friend. He bent up a custom winch bumper, too, and was planning to add a split- charge system when we took these pictures.
That’s a fair bit of work, some nice kit and no small amount of steel. So how much does a truck like this end up owing you?
The answer to this is that including the price of actually buying the X90 in the first place, plus that of a full engine rebuild, when these pictures were taken Simon reckoned he had spent no more than £4000 to get it to where you see it here. Kiss that goodbye if you have to pay for labour, but it’s not at all bad when you consider that as well as being a highly capable off-roader, it also bought him a perfectly usable everyday car.
The same could be said of many a modified Vitara, of course. And you could argue that that’s just what the X90 is. Suzuki modified its high- selling off-road hero into a hairdresser’s bubble car – but then people like Simon got hold of them and turned them serious.
Cheap parts, plentiful mods, a great club scene and excellent off-road ability – it was just like driving any other Vitara. But in this form, Suzuki’s legendary engineering came with a massive side order of individuality – and what’s not to like about that?
