Now You See Me
first Featured in 4x4 Magazine, October 2017
Suzuki specialist KAP is well known for turning out vehicles with eye-catching paint finishes. But the latest example of its Landmaster pick-up conversion isn’t painted at all. And however good it is, it’s definitely not supposed to be eye-catching…
In last month’s issue, we featured a brand new Suzuki Jimny which had been turned into a pick-up truck by KAP of Keighley. While we were photographing it, the guys from KAP also brought along the Jimny you see here – not quite as new as its stablemate, but every bit as eye-catching.
KAP’s Landmaster pick-up conversions sell into the agricultural, forestry and estate management sectors, where they’re becoming an increasingly popular alternative to side-by-side utility ATVs like the Kawasaki Mule and John Deere Gator. So the finish on this demo truck is ideal. You might already know that KAP started out as a body shop and paintwork specialist before branching out into Suzukis, so it might at first sound a bit off-message for it to be presenting one of its cars in a vinyl wrap – but when it’s Realtree camouflage, it couldn’t be more in keeping.
Realtree has been used on many a Jeep and full-size pick-up in North America, where the whole huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ thing is so much part of life. We’re not here to judge the morals of that – though we do have definite opinions on the classic Peugeot 205 GTI you’ll find wrapped in the stuff if you put it into Google. Anyway. Having seen the Jimny close up with our own eyes, what we can tell you is that it looks the absolute business.
Spec-wise, it’s straightforward underneath. KAP sells all manner of accessories for turning a Jimny into a hardcore off-road beast, and if that’s what you want there’s a Landmaster Max just for you, but what we have here is a standard vehicle enhanced with a +2” suspension package featuring KAP’s Prospec springs and Pro-Comp shocks as well as extended flexis for the brakes.
The extra height makes room for a set of 215/75R15 Insa Turbo Sahara 2s – a solid choice of remould mud-terrain which, along with the steel eight-spokes on which they’re mounted, is very much in keeping with this Jimny’s hard-working attitude. Obviously the pick-up bed at the back leaves loads of room, too.
Bodywork is something anyone can do but not anyone can do well. It’s a definite art – as any number of mechanically sound but horrendously lashed-up looking playday motors will demonstrate. That’s why you wouldn’t want to trust just anyone with a job like this.
The superb presentation of KAP’s own motorsport vehicles down the years shows what the company can do. And while the Landmaster is less overtly showy, it’s still a very fine advert for the skills they’ve got in-house. KAP’s bodies are digitally formed and mounted on laser-cut brackets, meaning the results are both consistent and free of flaws. That pick-up bed is beautifully made – and it’s a picture of practicality, with drop-down side and tailgate panels which as well as opening wide can also be removed altogether if what you need is a flat bed to carry a large, overhanging load like a hay bale or a dead deer.
These are the jobs people normally leave to the likes of the Gator or the Mule. But despite the Jimny’s image among the public at large as a bit of a hairdresser’s car, the Landmaster conversion makes the most of the serious ability built into the little Suzuki. And as KAP points out, being based on what now gets known as an SUV means that depending on the spec of the donor car, you can get it with alloys, air-con, a good stereo and even leather seats.
‘It’s an ideal alternative to a traditional utility vehicle,’ says KAP boss Darren Wilson. ‘They’re cheaper to run, more user-friendly and much more comfortable to ride in. And being based on a road-going 4x4, you can use one as your everyday car.’
In this way alone, the Landmaster is just like the pick-ups that have risen to become a major part of the new car market. As we all know, a major part of their attraction is that as well as being serious work trucks, they’re eminently suitable for daily drive duties – and so long as you don’t need a second row of seats, so too is this extremely creative take on the Jimny.
And they don’t get much more creative than this one. Wrapping a classic GTI in Realtree camo might be the height of bad taste – but when it’s a vehicle designed to spend its life in the great outdoors, what could be more perfect?
