Toyo Tires Ferret AFV
Most of the time, when a tire
manufacturer looks to create a show car for advertising its off-road tires, it
slaps some big tires and wheels on a brightly-colored lifted truck, Jeep, or
desert Prerunner. Apparently, someone in the marketing department over at Toyo
Tires has quite the overactive imagination when it comes to marketing vehicles,
as they commissioned an insane LS-powered 1959 Ferret armored six-wheeler.
To help bring this off-road fever dream
into reality, Toyo partnered up with Action Vehicles Engineering and
restomodded the decrepit Ferret into the six-wheeled monster you see in the
video below. Not many in-depth details are available, but from what we can see
in the brief video, it’s been thoroughly modernized. Gone is the sickly 130-hp
Rolls-Royce inline-six engine, replaced with a red-blooded LS V-8 powerhouse.
Up top, the cannon turret attachment was replaced with a functional grappling
hook winch contraption.
Underneath, Action Vehicle Engineering
says the chassis was modified to fit some seriously beefy King suspension bits.
This provided clearance for the exceptionally large 39-inch Toyo Open Country
tires. See those two tires mounted in the middle of the Ferret? Those are
non-powered auxiliary tires which can be raised and lowered for an extra
rubbery footprint on rough terrain.
Of course, such an incredible rig
deserves some serious talent behind the wheel. Toyo lent the Ferret to off-road
racing maniac and several-time world champion BJ Baldwin for the video. Unsurprisingly,
he does a great job flinging gravel and crunching dead logs with the mad
Ferret.
