When you think Toyota, you don’t really think big power, unless we are talking about a Supra. The same goes for their SUVs and pick-up trucks, which although dependable, will not “tickle the pickle” when it comes to performance. With that said, Quentin Boylan from Praetoria, South Africa, decided to make his Toyota Hilux a lot more exciting.

A Toyota Hilux With An AMG Heart - Now You've Seen It All

This Toyota Hilux now features a thundering M156 engine from a C63 AMG. This truly is a weird place to find AMG’s last normally-aspirated V-8.

Quentin has retained the stock Toyota automatic gearbox, but an adapter was used to “marry” the V-8 and transmission. There is also a MoTec M150 electronic control unit (ECU) for the engine. The white Toyota Hilux hasn’t just received the AMG engine. Quentin also put the AMG front brakes, AMG wheels, and lower sport suspension.

In addition, the owner added some AMG badging, which can give the impression that he might be someone who wants to own an AMG, but can’t afford one…that is, until they hear the V-8 rumble. But it’s not just on the outside that Quentin touched his Toyota Hilux extended cab. The interior now features new leather and Alcantara AMG seats, as well as additional red accents.

Quentin is using this project in order to advertise his business – he’s the owner of Colt & Mitsubishi spares – even though his business is not conversions, but spare parts. As far as projects go, this AMG-powered Hilux certainly is interesting and unique. In fact, the owner shares how other individuals have approached him with the request of doing similar conversions to their vehicles – something which he refused to do.

Boyland also shares that, previously, the Hilux had a manual, but it was terrible in traffic, due to the clutch slippage. “Preventing from slipping, you have to put a copper racing clutch in it”, he explained. Quentin went around it by swapping the manual gearbox for a 3.0-liter D4D diesel gearbox, which has a greater capacity for handling high-torque engines.

Because of the big interest, Quentin is now considering auctioning the truck off. Although we wouldn’t have expected Toyota to make a muscle truck like that, many expected Mercedes to do something similar with its short-lived X-Class. Sadly, that never happened and the X-Class wasn’t even a real Mercedes, as it was based on the Nissan Navara and its technological twin – Renault Alaskan. On the other hand, the vacuum left by the X-Class is all the more reason for people like Quentin to do crazy stuff like the AMG-powered Toyota Hilux.