Well, here’s a Mercedes X-Class pickup truck with an older 6.2-liter Mercedes-AMG mill plonked under the hood. Oh, wait, I’m sorry. It’s a Toyota Hilux with an AMG engine. I wonder why I thought the X-Class pickup truck with an AMG engine would’ve been a good idea. Duh! The X-Class was better off as a rich man's Nissan Navara with the same interior and drivetrain, right? Anyway, here’s one genius who plonked the previous-gen 6.2-liter AMG mill under the hood of his Toyota Hilux. The result? A sleeper truck that will scare the living daylight out of you with one press of the throttle.

The Heavy-Duty AMG Mill With A Manual Transmission Is The Ultimate Combination

This genius from South Africa retained almost everything on the Hilux except for the engine. In the stock form, the Hilux comes with a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engine that makes 148 horses and 253 pound-feet of torque. Power is sent to the wheels via a five-speed manual transmission. The same engine is also offered with 295 pound-feet of torque and a six-speed manual gearbox.

Coming back to the main topic, the guy swapped the four-pot mill with the Mercedes-AMG M156 6.2-liter, naturally-aspirated V-8 engine that used to be available in different states of tune.

Interestingly enough, though, he retained the manual gearbox as it is. In the video, you can hear the Hulk-lux (bad pun, eh?) roar on the streets of South Africa. It would’ve been a wonderful experience to hear the engine scream its lungs out on a race track, but this will do. If only it partakes in a drag race someday.

Final Thoughts

There is no word on other works carried out under the hood. I’m sure changes would’ve been made to the other drivetrain components as well to handle all the extra oomph. This is something Mercedes should have given us in the form of an X-Class AMG.

Sadly, the Mercedes X-Class pickup truck production is going to be halted as of May 2020. If Mercedes would’ve sold it as a genuinely premium truck with an AMG soul, maybe things could’ve been different. A Nissan Navara slapped with the three-pointed star logo and a premium sticker wasn’t going to cover up for the cheap plastic interiors and ultimately, it wasn’t going to sell anyway. What are your thoughts about this AMG-Hilux, though? Share them with us in the comments section below.